Has-Been Hero
by Bravsoul
Summary: Instead of All Might saving Izuku from the slime villain, a complete stranger who is also quirkless saved him, causing the poor boy to rethink his dream and the world around him. He will soon learn that not all heroes are good and villains aren't all bad. Oh, how the world will soon know the real truth behind the heroes and villains.
1. The Start

**Guess what? I'm not dead! Don't worry, there's an explanation for all of this. I've made this story because I was hyped on soda's and sugary drinks and with an abundance of free time. And so, let's roll this one out of here!**

 **Update: Thanks to InsertImaginativeNameHere for the beta work, now this chapter here will be more spicier than ever!**

* * *

" _Can a person like me… become a hero without a Quirk?"_

" _I don't know, I mean, I managed to get this far without one so, your guess is as good as mine."_

" _I-I-I mean, I know that! It's just… the way that you handled yourself… it was unlike anything I've seen… since…"_

" _...Listen, I don't know what you've heard or had experienced in your childhood, but you have to know something. Just because you're Quirkless doesn't mean that you're weak!"_

" _...! But that's-!"_

" _Just listen to what I have to say first, alright?! Haaaaa... Look, it's true that about 90% of the population has a Quirk and that the rest don't, therefore they became the butt of a joke for most people and are considered weak... HOWEVER! They failed to realize that even when you are born a Quirk in this world doesn't mean that you are the most powerful! Sure there are people with very powerful Quirks in the world and are the strongest in the world, for example All Might, but they have yet to realize that there are those that have the power to take away their Quirks and use it to their advantage!"_

" _I want to be the one to show the world how it is useless to rely on the heroes too much and that they should focus on becoming stronger and working together to help those in need! The heroes out there that are 'protecting' the civilians, they're fakes! Fakes that only fight for fame, wealth and power! Fakes that don't care about the population and ignore those in need of true help! Fakes… that let people die just to rise up the ranks… Now you see why I hate heroes like them. Heroes that have lost their way towards the path of a true hero…"_

" _..."_

" _...And yet…"_

" _Huh?"_

" _When you ran out there, I saw something in you. Something burning with the passion of saving those in need, despite not having a Quirk of your own. Something filled with determination to protect those in need of protecting. Something… like the heart of a true hero."_

"But… I was the one that let the villain get away! I was the one that distracted you when you were facing against that villain! And when I got there... I... I..."

" _No, you did something on that day. Something that no one was willing to do at all during that time. You were willing to risk your own life to save those in need. That's… something that marks a true hero. And that means-!"_

" _...!"_

" _YOU CAN BECOME A HERO!"_

" _AH… AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAAAAAAAAAA!"_

 _ **Twenty-four hours ago**_

In a world where most of its population possess something called "Quirks", a supernatural phenomenon that is spreading throughout the world, giving them superpowers that were thought to be impossible to obtain, this has led to the term "hero" becoming real and it is their duty to protect the citizens from harm at all cost. Yet, despite this, the remaining population are known as "Quirkless", individuals that possess no unique features or powers and are mocked as weak. And it is that we see a certain individual walking towards his school one day with bright eyes, filled with hope and determination.

That student is named Midoriya Izuku, a Quirkless 14 year old boy with nothing but dreams to keep him going. He has green eyes, freckles on both of his cheeks and curly hair with green highlights. As of right now, he's currently wearing his standard school uniform with a dark colored coat and pants with yellow buttons that ran down from his neck to his waist and red boots. As of now, students around him are looking at him with mocking looks and snickering as if they've heard the funniest joke. Nevertheless, he ignores them while mumbling to himself about the Quirks he'd seen this morning.

"Now listen up! It's high time now that you think about your future!" The day had been a bit rowdy as the students in a certain classroom were talking to their friends or peers about things that they'd done over their day off when their homeroom teacher came in and started to telling everyone to sit back down in their seats. "As many of you know, you are all third year students and your time in this school is coming to an end, so in order to determine where you will go when you graduate-" He then pulled out a stack of papers in his hand and showed them to the class, "I will now distribute your career aspiration document!" He was about to hand out a paper from the stack… before carelessly throwing them into the air. "But hey, all of you wanted to become heroes, right?" It wasn't a question and more like a statement as the students began to show off their Quirks in front of their teacher, letting them know that they all wanted to become heroes. "But don't use your Quirks in public, alright?!"

"Teacher, don't lump me with others!" a student suddenly yelled to the teacher as they voiced their confidence to the room. That student was named Katsuki Bakugou, a 14 year old boy that was born with the Quirk "Explosion", capable of making explosions with his sweat at will, with blond spiky hair, red eyes and standard middle school uniform.

"What the hell do you mean, Bakugou!?"

"Shut up, you secondary characters! You have no part in my upcoming story!"

"Ah yeah, you're going to Yuuei, aren't you?" At that, everyone flinched as they remembered what he said previously.

"Whoa, you serious?! That school takes a score of 79 to even enroll there!"

"There's also been talk that the entrance exam is as hard that most people that partake in it don't enroll.. At least, I think so?!"

"It's really not surprising that side characters like you are quaking in your shoes!" Bakugou then jumped onto his desk and roared to the classroom. "I'll be the only one from this shitty school to enroll into Yuuei and no one else! I'll surpass All Might and become the number one hero in the world! I'll leave my name for others to know that I'll be the richest person to all!"

"Huh, if that's the case, you're not the only one trying to enroll there. Midoriya is also going to Yuuei."

That made everyone stop what they were doing and look at the boy digging his head into his desk and laugh at him.

"No way! You, a Quirkless loser like you?!"

"Get real! You won't even get into Yuuei by just studying!"

"A-a-ah, but I-I won't know until I try! And even then-!" The boy didn't get to what he was about to say when the blond haired kid suddenly used his Quirk and blew up the boy's desk, causing him to flung back towards the ground. Once the boy was able to get his bearings, he could see that Katsuki was standing in front of him and pinning him with a murderous glare.

"Fucking Deku! I'm going to be the only one to attend to Yuuei! You're just a Quirkless nobody that just clings onto dreams and hopes! Well, I got newsflash for you, Deku! Give up on your dreams of becoming a hero, because I don't want any more competition from anyone!"

"T-that's not true Kacchan! I'm not t-t-t-trying to compete with you! I just want… it's been my goal since I was little… even if I don't have a Quirk, I wanted to at least try..." The boy looked down to the ground and stared as if it was the most interesting thing to see in the classroom.

Bakugou looked at Izuku in disgust as he watched Izuku cowering in fear. And to add even more fuel to the fire, he then lit his hands with miniature explosions as he stood there, an imposing figure. "The hell do you mean by that, huh?! Tell me, what is it that you're capable of, huh?! And also, tell me this!

"What can a Quirkless loser like you do?"

Izuku looked down in shame as the reality of not having a Quirk came back and slapped him in the face. Since the announcement was made that Izuku was Quirkless, everyone started to bully him and mock him for his weakness. Even Bakugou, former childhood friend, now turned bully, had also joined in on the fray, but every time the topic of Izuku becoming a hero was spoken, he'd get into a frenzy and start to rant that he could never become a hero. The realization of being Quirkless had stuck with him since he was in elementary school and all the way to where he was now. But, even if he was told to give up on his dream, he never did and instead studied every known Quirk known to mankind and marked them down on his notebook. The latest being "For the Future: Hero Analysis #13".

Suddenly, while everyone was mocking Izuku, a small rock found its way through the window and hit Katsuki in the head. "Who the hell threw that?!" He looked at everyone with a glare, to see who it was that dared throw something at him. Everyone had their hands up in a "don't hurt me" manner and looked at him in fear as he was searching for the one who threw that small object at him. No one, not even Izuku, knew who threw it in the first place.

Unbeknownst to everyone in the room, a figure was standing right outside of the outskirts of the school on a building, looking through a pair of binoculars. "Damn kids picking on the Quirkless, I swear, the ones who were born with a Quirk should really be grateful that they were born with one in the first place." This figure, in particular, was wearing what appeared to be a high-tech suit, outfitted with various technology fit for stealth missions. The only unusual thing about it was that it was made in a form of a suit with a dagger on their left side and a gun on the other.

"Now if only that guy finally would show up." He took out a cigarette from his suit's pockets and raised it to his mouth as he started to light the cig and smoke. " HuuueeeeHaaaaa… Seriously, what's taking that guy so long anyways? The guy said that he's suppose to be here by now…"

 _BE-BE-BE-BEEP! BE-BE-BE-BEEP!_

Just as he said that, a beeping sound came from within his pocket. "...You have got to be kidding me." With a moment of reluctance, he took out a small mobile phone and answered it. "Do I even want to know?"

"..."

"What?! Are you serious?! What the hell am I supposed to do for money then, huh?!"

"..."

"..."

"Okay, look, my rent is coming up and I need that money to help pay it and you're telling that my client decided to bail on me, just because he was scared of me!?"

"..."

"Yeah, well fuck you too then! Do you know how it feels to not have what I need to get those ingredients for my anniversary?! And just so you know, I'm going to be the one cooking here!"

"...!"

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Call me when you got another client coming. I'll be in touch."

With that, he closed his phone and continued to admire the scenery in front of him and yet, he sighed in frustration as he thought back to the conversation he had on the phone. ' _Damn it! What the hell am I supposed to do now?! That guy was my only chance of getting the money I need and he just decided to up and ran away! All because he knows_ _about_ _who I am_ _from_ _my reputation!'_ Again, he sighed in frustration as he ruffled his smooth red hair.

"Well, at least I helped out a bit for that kid, so maybe it's not all that bad."

After that the whole fiasco of Bakugou looking for the one who throw the small rock at him and the teacher having calmed the rest of the class down, the day finally ended and every student was quickly leaving. Izuku, being the only one left, packed his things slowly as he ran his thoughts back to what had happened. ' _I maybe Quirkless, but that doesn't that I don't want to try! Even if I don't have one, I still want to be a hero!'_ As he was just about done, a hand suddenly shot out in front of him, grabbing the notebook that was in his hand. He looked up and saw his notebook in the hands of Katsuki Bakugou and his lackeys.

"For the future! Pffft, seriously Midoriya?! That's just pathetic right here!"

"Ah, my notebook! Please give it back!"

"Hm? Oh yeah, here you go!" Bakugou blew the notebook in his hands, leaving the cover and the insides a bit charred.

"Wha-!? Kacchan, that's just too cruel, even for you!"

"Listen here Deku." He then threw the book out the open window and it shocked Izuku, but not before Bakugo placed his hand on his shoulder. "I'm going to be the only one going to Yuuei and I don't want you or anyone else getting in my way! But hey, let me give one piece of advice for you, as old childhood friends." He then gave a mocking smile at him as he let out smoke from his hand. "Forget about passing into Yuuei, you fucking nerd!"

Izuku, being scared of Bakugou, just stood there with his feet planted to the ground and looked down in shame as he and his "friends" were walking away. "Oh yeah! If you really wanted a Quirk, here's an idea! Why don't you just jump off the roof and hope that in the next life, you'll be blessed with a Quirk that isn't as weak!" He laughed at Izuku along with his lackys before completely leaving him alone in the classroom. Izuku quietly took in the abuse, quickly went towards the fish pond that was just outside of the classroom that he was just in and left the campus to go home.

He took the long way back home under a tunnelway as he thought back to when it was just announced that he was Quirkless. The times that he was bullied because of his Quirkless status throughout his childhood, the time where he was told to give up his dream of becoming a hero…

The time where his mother was telling him "I'm sorry… I'm so sorry Izuku…"

He shook his head to dispel the negative thoughts that were roaming around his head and looked towards the sky as he was nearing the exit. "I won't let anyone, not ever Kacchan, get me down on my dreams! I will be a hero that will protect everyone!" He then roared with laughter to the sky as he was filled with more determination to become a hero.

" _ **Invisibility cloak… medium sized…"**_

"Huh?"

Izuku looked behind in time see a enormous blob forming and then leaping at him with impossible speed. _"A-a villain?! Here?!"_ As the slime villain managed to grab him in its hold, it then tried to enter Izuku through the mouth while said tried to get it off of him, but to no avail. _'Is there where I'm going to die!? I can't die now, I wanted to become a hero!'_ He continued to struggle against the slime villain as it continued to forcefully enter Izuku's body.

" _ **Hey brat! Just relax and let take over! It'll be over in a few seconds! Just relax…"**_

Izuku was starting to get tired as he was slowly stopping his struggle until he had no energy left. In his current state of minds, he was panicking internally, thinking that he'll die, he'll die alone and no one will ever remember, he'll die,die,die,die,die,die,die,die-!

 _BANG! BANG! BANG!_

Suddenly, three shots rang out into the tunnel and hitted the slime villain, causing it to loosen its grasp on the boy a bit as it looks around frantically to see who it was that just shot at it. " _ **Huh?! Who's there?!**_ " Instead of an answer, another shot came out from the darkness and hit the slime right in the eye. " _ **Arrrrgggghhhh!**_ " The slime villain yelled out in pain, causing it to release its hold on Izuku and allowing him to escape.

" _Hey kid! If I were you, I'd run now! I don't know how long I can keep him busy!_ "

He wanted to run when the voice told him to, but he couldn't bring himself to run for two reasons. One reason was that a question was running through his mind a breakneck speed thinking 'what if the person who saved me is already having trouble with the villain and no one is there to help him.' The other reason was his fanboy instincts taking over, wanting to see who was fighting the slime villain, so he went against what that voice was telling him to do and stood there. Deciding that was the best course of action, he slowly walked backwards as to not get too close to the fight that was slowly moving towards him. When the fight gotten close enough, he could see the slime villain that tried to enter him, he could also see someone else fighting them, but it wasn't a hero at all!

It was a man that was in his mid-40s, smooth red hair, a stubbly beard on his chin, a red tuxedo that was outfitted with various of high-tech equipment, two sheaths with a combat knife on one side and a handgun on the other, a belt holding a set of knives on his chest and a earpiece on his left ear. "Come back here you bastard!" He kept chasing the slime villain as it tries to shake of its pursuer by swinging its tendrils at him. The man showed incredible agility as he dodged nearly every single tendril that was swung at him. Only one got to him and managed to grab hold of him, but he managed to dislodge himself away from it by swinging his knife at it and continued his pursuit.

" _ **Tch! How are you this strong!? Just stay down forever!**_ " The slime villain then swung more of its tendrils at him, but like last time, he dodged them with the same speed as he did before.

However, as he was dodging more of its tendrils, he saw the boy that he saved from was standing behind the villain and was looking at him battling the villain. "What the-?! I told you to-!" Before he get to say what he was saying, he was struck by the tendrils while he was distracted and hit the side of the tunnel as he was sent flying.

"Oh no! Sir!"

" _ **And stay down! As for you…**_ " Izuku knew that it was going to finish what it had started before and slowly backed away in fear. " _ **Don't worry boy! This will be quick if you don't start squirming!**_ " Before he knew it, he lunged at the helpless boy and he screamed in fear as he knew that there was no escape from this. Yet, even as everything was going to hell, the person that was knocked back into the wall, stood back up once again. He couldn't see what was happening, but when his vision was cleared, he saw the kid was about to be attacked by the slime villain and quickly ran towards the boy. As he was getting near the boy, he took something round from his pockets and threw it in between them.

"Kid! Cover your eyes!" Izuku did so without hesitation and something flashed between them. The slime villain wasn't so lucky as it was temporary blind by the round object. The slime villain yelled out in irritation and the man took this chance to grab the kid and quickly flee the scene with the boy in tow.

The two of them managed to get away from the villain and headed off into a secluded part of the city. The boy was throwing up on the ground behind a dumpster while the man was looking at the end of the alley. " _Huff… Huff… Huff…_ T-t-thank you. I thought I was…"

"Hey, no sweat there. You would've done the same for me, had I been in that situation." The man waved off his thanks while he was still looking at the end of the alleyway.

"Still though, no one was there to help me when I was caught by that villain. That's not something… Wait, are you… a hero?"

The man paused his lookout as he adapted a thinking pose before answering him "Well, somewhat. I'm a vigilante of sorts, ya know?" The man looked at the boy as he said that and noticed that he had this starry eyed look on him as he told him this. "Uhhh, hello? Anyone there?"

"SO COOOOOL!"

"Ah! What the hell?!"

Needless to say, he did not expect the boy to shout that loudly at him and it made him cover his ears on instinct. After a seconds, he picked his ears for any gunk and addressed the boy. "Okay, that was loud."

"O-oh! I'm sorry about that! I was just excited to see a hero is all!"

"Uh, what? A hero? Kid, I'm not a hero. I'm just me."

"But, you did save me from that villain, did you? I mean, if you're a hero, then you must have a Quirk!"

"Nope, don't have one."

"W-what?"

"Yeah, I don't have a Quirk. What you saw there was me fighting hand-to-hand with that villain. Well, you don't count them being all… gooey and such."

That shocked Izuku to the core as he just froze there in place. Him? Without a Quirk? That was impossible! No one could do all of that without a Quirk! Most people that didn't have a Quirk were called weak and powerless and were often the ones need of protecting. That's where the pro heroes came in. They would come to help in the time of need for the Quirkless and save them from the villains.

He should know, he was one.

"W-Wait a minute! You're Quirkless!? B-but how did you do all of that without a Quirk?!" He wanted to know so badly as to how he did all of this. He wanted to know what methods he used to get this far without a Quirk and if possible…

"T-then can I ask you something sir?" he asked the man weakly.

"Oh, please don't call me 'sir'. Makes me feel old. Just call me Rex." Rex flashed a smile at him.

"Oh… okay then. Rex-san,. I want to know something. I-is it possible for someone like me…"

As he was about to ask him, he looked down like he was about to cry as he remembered…

 _You should give up on becoming a hero._

 _I'm sorry Izuku… I'm sorry…_

 _Fucking Deku! You're useless!_

...the memories of his childhood.

"Can… can someone like me… become a hero? I… I don't have a Quirk like you and everyone at my school says that I should give up on my dreams of becoming a hero. You see, I'm just a normal kid that wasn't born with a Quirk and people would tell me that I'm useless. Yet… you came to my rescue and you rescued me from that villain without a Quirk. It's been my dream to become a hero that saves the people with a smile like my idol, All Might. So, I just want to know…

"Is it possible for me to become a hero without a Quirk?"

Izuku had said his piece and went back to staring at the ground in front of him. As Rex heard Izuku's question, he was having thoughts about what he had saw during their initial encounter. It was true that when he first saw him being attacked by that slime villain, he didn't do anything to save himself from that villain and he immediately knew that he was Quirkless. He didn't need to question his sad tone when he asked him that question as he knew what he had been through. There were times too where Rex had seen people being ganged up on and beaten to the ground when others know they were Quirkless. He had seen this many times in his life and it was the reality of this world that they lived in.

No one on this earth was born equal and yet, they strived to make it perfect it in anyway possible.

He smoothed his hair with his hand as he contemplated the question before answering the boy with the harsh truth. "Look, I don't know what you went through during your childhood, but I think I get the gist of it. From my perspective, the way you handled yourself out there with that encounter…

"You can't become a hero."

As he heard those words coming out of Rex, Izuku was not surprised to hear that from him, but it didn't help that he was about to cry-.

"BUT!"

-yet the shock from that was enough to snap Izuku out from almost crying.

"That doesn't mean you can't try." Izuku stared at Rex with a wide-eye look on his face before Rex continued. "I guess that you're kinda confused for a minute there. Right, let me see if I can explain this… Ah! Okay, let's try this. As you know, most of the world's population has a Quirk, meaning that they have the right to become a hero. But what about those without a Quirk? What happens to them? Do they have the right to become a hero? The answer to that is no, but that doesn't stop there, oh no!" He pointed towards one of the ends of the alleyway before continuing, "You know that there are heroes that are assigned to protect the civilians from any harm and the villains to do… whatever it is that they do on a daily basis, but that doesn't stop there. From my perspective, villains are just people, trying to live their lives however they can and that also goes to the heroes as well."

"Oh yeah, because of how heroes would get government pay, right?"

"Heh, yeah, that. Anyways, like I was saying, heroes would get pay by the government and the villains would get paid just by robbing some place. There's also another group that helps people, but are outside of the law called vigilantes. You know, people with Quirks that help people like the heroes, but are not legalized, yeah?" Izuku nodded at that before continuing. "Right, as you know, I'm also one of those vigilantes, but without the Quirk. Sort of actually, as I'm trying to help out people while trying to live my life in peace. You get what I mean?"

"Y-yeah, I think so… but you haven't actually answered my question." Rex looked at him funny and Izuku made various gestures while flustered, "N-n-n-n-n-not th-th-th-that you've a-a-actually did! I-I-I-I appreciate you explaining it, b-b-b-but-!"

"Will you calm down for one second?!" He hit Izuku's head before he could embarrass himself further.

"A-ah, I'm s-s-sorry about that! I, uh…"

"Nah, it's fine. I'm more worried whether I have to send you to the hospital or something." Izuku sheepishly rubbed his head at that. "Although, you are right. I haven't actually given you my answer yet." He cleared his throat before answering.

"If I can become a hero, why can't you be one as well?"

"...Huh?"

"Well, I mean, yeah! You are weak at the moment, but that can change! All you have to do is work hard and train yourself until you are capable of saving someone! Right now, you're weak, but with a little training, you could do anything!" Izuku looked a bit perplexed as he heard what Rex had said to him. As they were talking, a series of sirens can be heard coming across their direction and as soon as it crossed them, it faded away into another direction. "Huh, I wonder what's happening now?"

"I don't know… Oh! Maybe there's a villain attack that's happening right now!" Izuku quickly ran out of the alleyway, leaving behind a shocked Rex. Once Rex managed to snap out of his shocked state, he quickly ran after Izuku.

"Ah! Hey, wait a minute! You can't just go back into another attack right after you just got out of one! Are you even listening to me?! _Get back here!_ "

It took about twenty minutes for Izuku to get to where the attack was occurring by following the amount of police officers were going and about ten minutes for Rex to finally catch up to Izuku. "God… _Huff_ … damn kid… _Huff_ … you're faster than you look… _Huff…_ "

"Ah! I'm sorry Rex-san! I just want to see-!"

"Save it. What's important is that you didn't ran into another villain like last time." Izuku didn't say anything as he just blushed in embarrassment. Both of them fell silent as they watched the incident happen. From their point of view, it looked like there were multiple heroes on the scene trying to put out the fire that was rampaging through the stores of a local market. Several civilians could be seen trying to get out of the rubble and a hero was using their Quirk to help get them out. Rex looked at the heroes doing their job with mild interest, seeing as he already knew some of them. He looked to his right and saw the boy looking at the heroes with the same starry-eyes look he'd gave him, only, this one was more intensified. He could see the boy pull out a notebook out of nowhere and started to scribble so fast in his notebook, he could barely make out the words that were barely eligible. ' _Sheesh, for a kid like him_ _,_ _Quirkless, he sure can write…_ ' He could feel a sweatdrop as he saw him continuously scribble in his notebook.

' _Although, I do wonder what happened here.'_ He thought to himself.

"Say, what did happen here? All I heard was the word 'chase'."

"You didn't hear? The villain over there managed to get away from All Might and started to cause some damage to the area."

"Seriously?! All Might was here?! Then why isn't he here yet?!"

"I don't know! Your guess is as good as mine man!"

It didn't take a second for Rex and Izuku to know what they were talking about. It was the slime villain that they'd faced earlier today!

For the most part, Rex was berating himself for not taking him down while he had the chance to do so, but he was caught with the boy and everything. He didn't blame the kid for distracting him from the villain, moreso to himself for getting distracted like that. Izuku, on the other hand…

' _Hey… wasn't that the villain that Rex-san was fighting…? Oh man! Does that mean… it was my fault to begin?! I'm sorry! I'm so, so, sorry…!'_ He was covering his mouth as he had also experience the slime villain trying to take over his body once and shivered in fear. Rex noticed this and wanted to say something to him, but couldn't find the right words to say. Just as he had turned back to the incident, his eyes caught something moving within the slime villain.

"Wait a minute… What the hell?!" Shocked by Rex's sudden loud voice, Izuku looked at Rex for a second before turning to where Rex was looking at. Then he saw something terrible. Something that shook him to the very core of his heart.

His best friend being held hostage by the slime villain.

Without any warning, Izuku ran through the ground, past the heroes and towards the heroes. Needless to say, it shocked everyone around him. "Hey, wait! What do you think you're doing kid?! You're going to get yourself killed!" one of the heroes shouted to Izuku as he snapped out of it.

' _What am I doing!? Why am I running towards the villain?!'_ Izuku frantically thought to himself as he was getting closer to the villain.

" _ **What the-?! This fucking brat~!**_ "

"...Deku?"

While the villain was momentarily distracted, he regained his focus and readied his tendrils to strike at Izuku. " _ **Come here brat! I'm not done with you yet!**_ " Suddenly, Izuku threw his backpack at the only eye that was hit by Rex's gun and it blinded him, giving Bakugou a chance to breathe and Izuku to finally get to him and started to claw his way through.

" _Cough, cough, cough, cough!_ Deku, what the fuck are you doing?!"

"I don't know why! My legs were moving on their own!" After their short exchange, the slime villain covered his mouth once again.

Yet, despite this, Izuku gave him a brave smile.

"It just look liked you need help!"

The slime villain's tendrils were already close to Izuku and were about to hit him-!

"KID! GET DOWN NOW!"

-when a loud voice came out and yelled at Izuku to get down. Knowing this voice, he promptly did so and saw another round object came flying in between them, only this time, it was green. Seeing the object coming for him, the villain used its tendrils to hit the object, causing it to explode in front of him. As he did that, a shadowy figure ran through the smoke, jumped towards the slime villain with its weapons drawn on it and let hell loose. It opened fire at the slime, causing several bullets to hit the body and while only a few bullets came close to hitting Bakugou, it kept firing at it. One bullet managed to hit its mark and hit the other eye, causing it to go blind.

" _ **AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!**_ " Not letting the slime get its chance to recover, it grabbed Bakugou from the villains hold, threw him several feet away from the villain and went over to Izuku while facing the villain.

"Damn kid, getting into trouble again…!" Izuku gathered enough courage within him to see who was it that saved him and saw Rex again, facing his the villain while his back was towards him. "If you keep this up, I'll have to charge you for the protection service, but right now-!

" **I'M GOING TO KICK HIS ASS INTO OBLIVION!** "

With a war cry, he headed straight for the villain like a meteor and the fire on him got stronger. The villain didn't know what was going on as he was blindly swinging his tendrils everywhere and before he knew what was happening, it was too late.

" **Meteor Impact!** "

The slime villain's parts burst everywhere and a fire pillar erupted from the ground, along with a massive wind pressure from the attack and effectively killing the fire. Once everything was quiet, the people that had just witnessed it, burst into cheering for the one that saved them. Rex stood up from his position, grabbed a cigarette and lighter from his pocket, lit up the cigarette and smoked from the stick. He smirked from the attack as he looked at his surroundings.

"And that's how a Quirkless guy like me gets the job done."

* * *

 **...**

 **...**

 **...**

 **I have some explaining to do, huh? _Ahem!_ As you may or may not know, my previous story 'I'm not a Hero!' went on an unexpected hiatus for an unknown reason. What's that reason you may ask? Simple!**

 **Internet was down for Two. Whole. Weeks. It was driving me insane in the house as I had no idea on what to do. I did have some backup games in case something like that happened, but even that has it limits. However, as you can see, the internet is back on for me and I can finally make some progress on my story! Yay! Problem is, I've hit a block that was really annoying. God damn it! During my time off the internet, I read a few manga's I've gotten in the past and read 'My Hero Academia' and was inspired by the series to make this story! So far, this is the one that helped me out with that block of mine and I should have some of chapters from the other story written up.**

 **The only condition that I have is that I've lost some of my work due to me getting a blue screen of death and not saving my work often.**

 **...This fucking sucks.**

 **As of now, I'm working hard on my previous story to update it, so that I can give it to you good readers out there! I will get the next chapter out, just not right now, but I will!**

 **In any case, I hope you enjoy this one and I'll be working harder than before! As always, thank you for taking the time to read my story.**

 **Again, I'd like to thank InsertImaginativeNameHere for the beta work! Without them, this story couldn't be more awesome!**

 **See you guys later!**


	2. 10 months of Hell: Start!

**Hey guys! Welcome back to the second chapter of this story! Now, it's been awhile since the last one, but with the help of my beta readers, this chapter has been polished like a brand new car!**

 **...**

 **...**

 **Yeah, I'm not that good with the analogies here. Or if they're called that. In any case, let's get the second chapter rolling!**

* * *

" _So, you want to become a hero, huh?!"_

" _S-sir, yes, sir!"_

" _First off, stop stuttering so much! It makes you sound like a dying car engine or something!"_

" _S-s-sorry sir!"_

" _What did I say about stuttering?!"_

" _...! Yes, sir! Sorry sir!"_

" _Now that's more like it! Now, if you want to become a hero, you'll need to be quick, strong and smart in order for you to become one! HOWEVER! Those traits are your secondary priority! What's really important is your determination and your will to save those that in need of saving! To look into death's eye without fear and walk away alive! To face your opponents, no matter how strong they are! And most importantly-!"_

" _TO GIVE EVERYTHING YOU GOT WHEN YOU ARE AT DEATH'S DOOR! SO I ASK YOU! IZUKU MIDORIYA! WILL YOU RISK YOUR LIFE TO GIVE EVERYTHING YOU GOT TO SAVE A LIFE?!"_

" _Y-YES SIR! I'LL GIVE EVERYTHING I'VE GOT!"_

" _Well, we'll still have to work on that stuttering of yours, but whatever! Get ready kid! Your training starts now!"_

* * *

When the slime villain incident was over, Izuku and Bakugou were quickly taken to the ambulance and given a check-up. Once the medics on the scene gave the heroes a green light, they scolded Izuku for running into danger and not thinking about the consequences while the other heroes were practically praising Bakugou because of his Quirk and everything and were offering a position as a sidekick, should he graduate from school. Bakugou looked like his mind was elsewhere and Izuku was looking at him with relief in his eyes. He then tried to see if Rex was here as well, but was disappointed to see that he wasn't. ' _Must've already left before the heroes could stop him… I wanted to say thanks for saving me again…'_ Before long, Izuku parted separate ways with the heroes and found himself walking back home. The sun was already about to set into the horizon as Izuku was heading back. He soon encountered Bakugou along the way.

"Fucking Deku! Who'd said that I wanted to be saved by you?!" He was roaring at Izuku and was insulting him, but this time, it seemed to be tame. "Don't you fucking think that I owe you or something, because that's not the case! I don't want you or anyone else looking down on me! I'll become number one, you hear me?!" After that, he left Izuku with a final 'I'll fucking you kill if you do that again, got it?!'. And promptly left him alone.

' _It's fine, it's better off this way.'_ Izuku smiled sadly to himself as he continued to walk down the street. ' _I don't expect him to say thanks, I'm just glad he's alright. But… I never did get my answer from Rex-san… Does this mean that I-?'_

"Well, glad to see you're still alive."

Izuku was jolted out of his thoughts when he heard a certain voice coming from nowhere. He noticed Rex leaning on one of the walls beside him. "Heh, you look like you've seen a ghost." He rubbed his nose with his index finger.

"Rex-san?! But how did you get out of there?! Weren't the heroes surrounding you?"

"When you been doing this for about half of your life, you're bound to come up with something useful." He shook his head, "Nevermind that, there's a reason as to why I need to find you again."

This confused Izuku to an extent. "B-but why do you need to find me? You saw what I did back there… and I didn't do anything to help..."

"True, true. You did run out there to the villain, but you did something that no other hero can do." Izuku tilted his head in confusion. "You were willing to risk your life to save someone."

"B-b-but's that-!"

"Look, can you just shut up for a few minutes so that I can explain myself?" Izuku promptly clapped his hand over his mouth so that he'd let Rex finish speaking. "Thank you. Now, where was I? ...Oh yeah!" He abruptly snapped his fingers towards Izuku, startling him. " You ran out there towards danger when the pro heroes couldn't do anything to help. The villain took someone hostage and was using their Quirk to fend off the heroes. Despite the heroes having a Quirk, they just stood there, waiting for someone else to brave the dangers that the villain posed. And yet, there you were, a Quirkless boy who had no powers, who ran out there and saved them. Clearly, I gave you my answer too soon as I didn't know you were capable of doing that. Now, I want to revise my answer to you."

"W-what about when you said that I have to find the answer for myself? Was that just a lie?!"

"No. That answer was given to you, because I didn't know you very well. I wanted you to not rely on others giving you an answer. But now that I've seen that little encounter of yours, I now have the full picture."

Izuku hadn't wanted to get his hopes up, but what Rex said changed that. "Kid, you have been told that you can't become a hero because you were Quirkless, right?" Izuku became a bit misty-eyed as he continued to listen to Rex. "You shouldn't listen to what others say about you. They don't know you, therefore, they tell you that you can't become a hero. You did something today that no one else has done. Kid… let me be the first to say this to you." He took in a deep breath and hold it for a few seconds, then spoke.

" _YOU CAN BECOME A HERO."_

Izuku fell to his knees in shock as he heard that sentence. Tears ran down his face. The words that he wanted to hear for so long since he saw All Might, when the doctor told him to give up his dream, when his mother told him 'I'm sorry Izuku!... I'm so, so, sorry…', when the kids at his school mocked him.

This was the happiest moment of his life.

" _IN CASE YOU WANT TO HEAR IT AGAIN KID, YOU CAN BECOME A HERO!"_

" _AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"_

* * *

 **The next day**

The sun shone that morning as Izuku stood in front of a large door that was… normal compared to the rest of the building. "Normal" being that there was a huge sign that read ' _Love and Dance! Come drink your heart out! Family friendly bar!'_ Izuku could only stare at the sign in sheer disbelief, but he knew that this was the place that Rex told him to go. He focused on the things that Rex said to him yesterday...

 **000**

 _After Izuku calmed himself down, Rex told him that_ _he'd_ _help him train to become a hero. He then gave him a business card and told him to go to this location in the morning. "If you happen to see the sign 'Love and Dance!' you're in the right place, but don't be alarmed by what you see. Especially the people."_

" _What do you mean Rex-san?"_

" _Well, my family does… extravagant, let's go with that, things to attract people to our place and we get more money this way. I love my family to death, but sometimes they really get aggravating sometimes. Anyways, once you get to that location, you'll hear someone welcoming you. Mention my name and you'll be taken somewhere. Also, one last thing…"_

 **000**

" _Don't go into the bar area. It's not open in the mornings, but there's a man that's always sleeping in that area. Whatever you do, DON'T go to the bar area while that man is sleeping! You hear me?!"_

' _Rex-san was sure intent on me not going to the bar area for some reason. I wonder why?'_ Izuku shook his head as he knew there were more important things to worry about right now.

Mainly, him standing in front of the entrance like a creep and everyone staring at him weirdly.

Embarrassed by this, he quickly went through the entrance of the building and closed the door behind him. When he got inside, he saw three things. An elevator in the middle, stairs on the right and another door on the right, however, the door on the right side had the same thing like the one outside, only it was smaller. Seeing no other option, he entered through the door and a _DING_ sound came out of nowhere.

"WELCOME!"

Izuku was a bit surprised to hear that upon entering, but soon got his bearing. He could see that there was a hotel desk of sorts, filled with things you would normally see when you entered a hotel and a podium with a small lamp attached to the top. After a minute or so passed, a woman that looked to be in her mid-20s showed up in his peripheral vision. The woman was wearing a white undershirt with a black vest, a red tie around her neck and a long red skirt. Her green hair cascaded to her shoulders. "Welcome to L & D! Are you here to eat or do you have a reservation?"

Izuku got a bit flustered when the woman spoke to him and started making various hand gestures. "Uh, um, we-we-well. Here!" He nervously handed her the card that Rex gave to him and she took it.

"Ah, I see. Rex-sama wanted you here, right?" She said after reading the card. Izuku nodded his head frantically, causing the woman to giggle at his antics. "My, you're a funny one, ain't ya? Rex-sama is currently in his office in the back. Come on, I'll lead you to him." The woman gestured Izuku to follow her and he did so with a red face. Past the desk, there was a large area, filled with tables, a few next to each other, some near couches and others with a stool. The amount of tables could fit a crowd. Right next to the tables was an area that had rows of liquor, counter that had a bartender's needs and stools that was accommodated with railings. All and all, a restaurant and a bar put together. The only thing that was keeping them separate was a thick red carpet in the middle of the floor, with railings on the sides.

Izuku saw something move in the bar area and noticed a man sprawled on the counter with a bottle in his hand and empty ones littered the floor beside him. "Um, miss? Who's that there?"

The woman looked to where Izuku was looking and slapped her forehead. "Oh man! Jack-sama is here already! I thought I locked the place up real good!" Izuku was confused by the woman's outburst before she turned to face him and explained. "Sorry about that. The man you see before you is the founder of this here building, Jack Thunder. He came aboard from America and started a business and that business is what you see here!" She scowled, "Yet no matter how many times I've seen it, it still irritates me to no end that he would somehow break open the lock and drink up all the booze! Isn't that bad for business?"

Izuku couldn't tell what was she thinking in her head, but didn't question it as he had a feeling that he didn't want to know. Suddenly, he remembered what Rex told him. " ' _There's a man always sleeping in that area…'_ Could this be the man that Rex-san was talking about?" Izuku muttered to himself.

"Hm? Is there something on your mind?"

"O-oh! No, no! It's nothing!"

The woman looked at him for a few minutes before shrugging. "Anyways, I'll have to deal with him later. Come on now." She headed off from the bar area. He spared one last glance at the man before following her.

* * *

 _KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!_

"Hello?! Anyone there?!"

"Door's open!"

The woman and Izuku walked through the door into an office. The office wasn't grand like the restaurant and bar, just some filing cabinets next to a window with a book shelf adjacent to the window. A desk was placed in the center of the room and was filled to the brim with papers among papers. The one that was writing on them was Rex himself. He looked from the paper to the woman and Izuku. "Hey kid! Sorry about the mess here. Was doing some sales reports." He got up from his seat and grabbed two chairs from the side. "Come in! Sit! Sit! You can sit as well Sano-san!" The woman, Sano, bowed in appreciation and sat alongside with Izuku. Izuku took a moment to look around his surroundings before sitting down. "So, how've you been lately?"

"Uhhhh, well, I've been… okay… for the most part. Kacchan hasn't been talking to me since the slime incident. He's been looking at me during classes… but he hasn't been talking to me at all…"

"Yeah, I figured. From what I can tell, he's got some kind of grudge against you. I'm not sure what, but if it warrants that kind of abuse, I'm not sure why you would follow a guy like that. From what I've seen, he's pretty violent."

"Oh no, no, no! It's not like that! Kacchan was my childhood friend! We used to go out and play as kids until... "

Sano and Rex didn't say anything, offering support in silence. The tension in the room was like a thick coat of paint. After a few minutes, Rex continued. "I apologize. While I would like to offer you a drink, we have more important things to discuss. There's something I'd like to tell you before we begin training."

"Hm? What do you mean Rex-san?"

"While I did promise you I would help you train, I feel as though I should tell you a secret of mine. Something that will either prove beneficial for the both of us or we all end up dead."

"W-w-wait a minute! A-a-are you sure that you want to tell me this secret? Is it that dangerous?"

"Yeah, it is." Sano interjected. "Rex-sama doesn't usually tell this to almost anyone at all, just those that he trusts completely. The fact that he's willing to tell you, says a lot."

Rex nodded at Sano before continuing. "Not many people know about this secret because it would either lead them to telling someone powerful and destroying us or use that information to blackmail us. Either or, I just don't want this information leaking out. You get me?" Izuku felt anxious by the sheer amount of pressure from whatever this secret Rex held was. "Of course, you could just not be told this secret and we'll continue our training."

"What! You can't just say that and expect me to forget about that!"

"Oh, so you want to know then?"

"More than anything!"

Rex and Sano chuckled at his desperation. "Hehe… Okay. Now…" The room then grew to be even more tense than when Izuku first entered and it scared him. "Do you really want to know? If you say no, no foul done and we'll go right into our training. Say yes, however, then you have to swear that you will never tell this secret to anyone, 'lest everyone you know and love will die.

"Are you willing to hear this secret?"

Izuku didn't know what he'd gotten himself into. He was promised to be a hero by Rex yesterday and now, here he was, his soon-to-be trainer about to tell him a secret that would no doubt change his life.

For better or for worse, only time would tell.

However, there was one thing on his mind that got him curious. "Um, Rex-san? Why are you telling me this secret anyways? What made you want to tell me this secret?"

Rex didn't make any reaction to that question and instead looked at the boy liked he'd expected it. "Well, it's for two reasons. One reason is that if we're going to be working together for the unforeseeable future, it's better to let you know what's what than being left in the dark."

"Hmm, I guess that makes sense. And the second reason?"

"Simple, I trust you."

It took Izuku a record time of twenty seconds before he let out a small "Huh?".

"Well, the way I see it, you're a smart guy that knows when to keep his mouth shut when asked one too many questions. Plus, I'm currently looking for potential people to come work for me as of right now. Call it a... security measure for me to see if anyone is willing to blab this secret."

"More like you just feel like telling everyone you hire Rex-sama." Sano deadpanned.

"I don't just 'feel' like telling everyone Sano-chan! Some people are worth telling this secret is all!"

"We'd almost got caught several times because of you and your family! Most of the time, it's your dad when he gets super drunk or your mother when she's getting in the mood! Don't tell me those times were your fault!"

"It's not-"

"Hmph! Don't try to argue your way out of this! You've been doing this for who knows how long and we still haven't been caught yet! I don't want to risk it ever again! Either you tell this boy and prove me wrong or don't tell him and-"

"EXCUSE ME!"

Rex and Sano both stopped their arguing at Izuku raising his voice. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but… can anyone please explain to me what is going on? And yes Rex-san, I do want to know what's this secret of yours, just please stop arguing!" He was uncomfortable at all of the attention suddenly directed at him.

Rex was rubbing his head in shame while Sano looked indifferent. "Sorry about that. Me and Rex-sama don't usually do that in front of other people. Think of it as our way of communicating, it's fine." Rex grumbled underneath his breath, saying something about talking fish or something until Sano silenced him with a glare. "Now then, I'm pretty sure at this point you're just ready to know what the secret is." She turned to face Izuku and knew she was right. He was starting to feel a bit exasperated.

"Okay, okay. We might as well tell you. But you have to promise not to tell anyone, okay? Like Rex-sama said, anyone who learns this secret is at risk of being kidnapped, killed or worse." Izuku didn't need to be told twice as he furiously nodded, having enough of being in the dark about whatever the thing is.

"Right then," Rex speaking up after Sano. "Let's get to it, shall we?" He coughed. "As you already know, I'm Rex Thunder, manager of L & D. The woman that you see before you is Tatsumi Sano. She's a full-time member and the receptionist here of this establishment." Sano quickly got up from her seat, bowed her head and sat back down. "We founded this place around fifteen years ago when my old man decided that he wanted to go to Japan and run a business here. We did so and so far, we've been very successful. Now, you may be asking yourself 'Where am I going with this?'. Well, you should know that his whole place here is a cover.

"A cover that masks our true purpose."

Izuku didn't know what to make of this. A cover-up? True purpose? What on earth did Rex mean? Maybe he's trying to test him to see if he's really worthy? It could be that this was a test to see if he qualified or that it was an elaborate ruse to mask their purpose and Rex had no intention on training him at all...

"Kid, you're muttering. Is that something I should be concerned about?"

He covered his mouth in embarrassment. "S-s-sorry! I-I only do that when I'm n-n-nervous or I have a theory a-a-and-"

"Okay, stop that." Rex did a hand chop motion on Izuku's head to silence him. "This is no time to be scared. If you're scared about this, then I'll stop-"

"N-no! P-please! I have to know! I have to."

"...Well, if you insist." Rex took a moment to straighten himself before continuing, "Like I was saying, the whole restaurant and bar establishment is just a cover-up for hiding our true purpose here. And that purpose…

"Is our occupation here as mercenaries."

"...Huh?" Izuku was… confused. Mercenaries? He only knew four categories of society. Vigilantes, Heroes, Villains and Quirkless. Since when were there Mercenaries?

"Allow me to explain what we are. As you may or may not know, mercenaries are people that do things for other people for money. Either they are for assassinations, bodyguards, whatever our job is, we'll do it so long as we get paid in the end. In a world where most of its population are filled with Quirks, there wasn't a need for mercenaries as there are heroes that do the job for the police. Villains, on the other hand, do things outside the law and use their Quirk to make their job easier and possibly ruin someone else's life. However, not everything is painted with white and black. There's a thin grey line in between those two sides. On one hand, there are heroes that exists solely for only money, fame and power. On the other, some villains are people that have been accused of doing crimes that haven't committed at all and are on the run from the law. They can't see their family, their friends, their loved ones… those are the unfortunate as they are forced to run from accusations that the heroes and authorities placed on them, just for the fame."

It took Izuku a few minutes to comprehend the information that was given to him by Rex. He heard about this before when he was browsing the internet. There was a rumor that heroes would pay a villain to help them stage a fight and let the heroes come out on top. From there, said hero would receive the fame and fortune that they want and the villain would end up in prison. It'd seemed far-fetched, but if Rex said that this was real, then… "Are all heroes like that? People who sacrifice other people for their selfish desires?"

"No, not all of them. Some heroes do have the passion for saving others in danger, but sooner or later, they too will forget the path of a true hero. However, there is another group called the Vigilantes that work outside of the law to protect the population from harm. Those could be considered true heroes, but considering that they can also turn into a villain is a bit much for them, so it's an even split." Rex stopped talking for a moment in favor of looking at Izuku and seeing how well he's taking in this new information. His face was wrinkled in thought. Rex couldn't blame him for that, seeing as he was just told the biggest secret there is to tell. "I can understand if this is all too confusing for you. We've been hiding from the government for… I think about twenty years or so?" Rex shook his head to dispel any thoughts before continuing. "In any case, we've been in hiding since heroes were a thing way back when. Only reason why we didn't show up is because we didn't want any trouble to come knocking."

"Although that's happened too many times as it is." Sano muttered to herself.

Rex gave her a deadpan look.. "Seriously? I told you, those were different times back then! It didn't happen for, like what, three weeks?!"

"As I said before, I'm not willing to take that chance again! Now that you told him, you have to take responsibility!"

"You think I don't know that!"

Rex and Sano began their bickering once again, leaving Izuku to his thoughts. Throughout his childhood, he was a fan of the heroes that would go out to the public and heroically save the citizens from danger and capture the villains to keep the streets clean of them. He'd also known about the vigilantes that would also help out the public, but they would go outside of the law and use whatever they had to stop the villains. Now he was here with Rex, the one that saved him from the villain, and was told that there was another group of people that would also help the public, but only for a cost. Wait… if that's true… "Um… do you guys like, also help the villains too?"

Rex and Sano stopped their bickering to look at Izuku. He couldn't tell what they were thinking, but it didn't look good to him. In his opinion, at least.

"Well, yeah. That's what mercenaries do. We take whatever job for whoever hires us. Especially the villains."

"Huh?! But… but why? I know that you explained that not all villains are bad! But what about those that are really bad! What happens then! Do you just ignore what they're doing all for the sake of money? That's even worse than what you told me about the heroes would do!"

"...That may be true. But…" Rex slammed his hands and pinned Izuku with the most murderous glare, "WE ARE NOT MONSTERS THAT WOULD LIKE VILLAINS GO ON A RAMPAGE!" Saying that Izuku was shocked here would feel… off, so instead the boy was really shocked to the point where he fumbled in his seat before falling on his back, "Haaaaa, look kid, you have to know that this is the lifestyle of a mercenary. We don't ignore any potential clients nor can we ignore those in need. It's like what I told you when we first met. Yes, we may look like monsters on the outside, but that doesn't say much about us on the inside."

"Rex-sama is right on this one." Sano decided this was the time to interject, "It is true that in most societies, our way of handling things is frowned upon and are often met with heavy punishment. That's why we're in hiding, so that we can continue this business of ours."

"B-but why though?! If a villain so bad comes to you and hires you, what are you suppose to do?! Obviously, you can't just, let him get away!"

"We know, we know! There are times where we can't let them get away with what they've done, but for potential clients like them, there's nothing we can do!"

"Not unless someone else hires you for the higher price, right?!"

"That would work, but it has its flaw. You see, if someone were to hire us for work, then that person with the highest price would be the person we'd have to work with. In other words, we only work for those that are offering large amounts of money."

"B-B-But that's-!"

"Hey, wait a minute. How about this then?" Izuku and Sano both stopped talking and looked to see Rex like he'd just ate something good, "The Yuuei entrance exam is coming up in about ten months and you wanted to become a hero, right?" Izuku nodded at that while getting back on his feet. "So, how about we do this? We help you train for the next ten months and in return, you show us your way of a hero. Sound good?"

Izuku looked at this point. Wasn't that why he's here in the first place? To train to become a hero? Then why would Rex tell him all of this if… Wait a minute… "You wanted to hire me from the start?"

"Well, the hiring part comes with it. You are to work for us as a part-time employee here at L&D. In addition, you'll get to see that being a mercenary is not all bad and see how you can apply this to your training." Rex explained. Izuku had a look of hesitation that crossed through his face, but Rex said something that changed his mind completely.

"In case you are still having doubts, you should know that there are also Quirkless people that went through the same thing as you did."

Izuku stared at Rex with a shocked expression on his face. Could it be true? Were there really more Quirkless people in the Mercenary group? All of his life, he knew that people with Quirks could become heroes, hearing that Quirkless people actually helping…? To everyone else, it would seem that those people are insane and should just leave everything to the pro heroes. But to Izuku… "Th-th-then I would like to join the mercenaries! Please Rex-san!"

Rex smirked victoriously at Izuku. "Alright! Now, what I want you to do is-!"

 _WHA-BAM!_

The door behind them suddenly slammed open, unhinging the door in the process. Izuku was really shocked that someone had managed to burst through the door and let out a small yelp while stumbling back down towards the ground. Sano looked at the door with a long-suffering sigh while Rex…

"God damn it old man! How many times do I have to tell you to actually fucking knock?!

In front of where the door used to be, stood a figure that was 6'1'', around fifty years old, short wild white hair, light red eyes, a goatee beard, striped black and white shirt that was a bit torn up, red khaki pants and black combat boots. It was the one from the bar area that Izuku saw, Jack Thunder! "Ah, come on Rex! When's the last time you let me get to have fun with the new recruits, huh?" From his hand, he gulped down large amounts of alcohol into his system.

"Did you even hear what I-! Wait, how did you know about the kid being hired?!"

"Easy, you just told me! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Rex groaned in pain while Sano gave the Jack the 'why the hell would you do that?' look. Meanwhile, Izuku looked at the figure awestruck. After all, he did just burst through the door like it was nothing. Who was this guy?

How did he manage to break down the door like that? As Izuku kept thinking of different possible solutions to that question, he failed to realize that Jack was staring at him directly in the face, causing him to be startled and hit his head on the desk. "So, who the hell are you kid? I know that you're a new recruit based on what Rex over there said." A distinct grumbling sound can be heard from above.

"O-oh! My name is Izuku Midoriya! It's nice to meet you!" Izuku quickly stood up and politely bowed to him.

"..."

"..."

"...Hey Rex. I thought you said that the new recruit was a boy, not some guy here acting like some fucking poser or something."

At the absurdity of what Jack said, everyone within the vicinity either facepalmed and face vaulted into the ground.

"Ah, you know what? Forget it. Come on kid!" Jack grabbed Izuku before he could do anything and pulled him away from Rex and Sano. "Don't worry about this one Rex! I'll take _good_ care of him! And if you told him the secret, then I'll _really_ take care of him! BWAHAHAHAHA!" And with that, they were off to who knows where.

When Jack and Izuku left the office, Rex let out a breath of relief that he was finally rid of Jack for various of reason. Izuku, on the other hand… not so much. "...Not sure how I feel about this development, but whatever. Hopefully, he doesn't die on the first thing the old man puts him through."

Sano was oddly quiet during that exchange and just sat there with her hand propped to her chin. After a few minutes of silent thinking, she grabbed Rex's attention. "Rex-sama, why did you tell Izuku-chan our secret?"

"Huh? What do you mean Sano-chan? I said that-"

"I know that you said that, but the fact is… you lied to him." Rex went silent after that proclamation, "Why did you lie to him? You could've just not told him and just got right into training, but instead, you just told him one of our biggest secrets out there. Why did you tell him?"

Rex sat there for the longest time, not knowing what to say or do in that situation. It's true though, ever since the term 'Mercenaries' came into play, they'd been secretive and kept their presence hidden from the world. When Mercenaries first came into play, they were looked down upon by the masses of the population and the pro heroes. People that only work for money of those who hired them, rumors spread about how they were cruel and had no sense of morals beyond any human standards and most importantly… Quirkless.

"There's only two reasons as to why I told him our secret," Rex said to Sano after a few minutes of silence, "The first reason is because of those fake heroes."

"Oh, like the ones you've been telling us before? About how heroes are fakes?"

"Mmhm. Since heroes were a thing in the past, there have been countless of other 'self-proclaimed' heroes that have said the same things over and over again. 'We exist to protect those that are in need of danger.' Tch, as if they actually did any of that stuff to begin with." Rex's face slowly turned into a scowl, "As you can imagine, some heroes have been doing so far is rising up the ranks in the Hero society we all know today. Apparently to some heroes, ranking means everything, meaning that they are willing to go as far as sacrificing a few people to rise up the ranks. Sure, there are some heroes out there that are decent enough, but I just can't stand it!

"Heroes are suppose to save those in need of help, regardless of what they are! Instead, heroes use them as a way to rise up, either by paying them to stage an accident with another villain that they paid or they just flat out kill them and explain that there was a villain attack and they couldn't do anything about it!" At that point, Rex suddenly stood up from his seat and slammed his hands on the desk, shocking Sano in the process, "WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THE HEROES OF TODAY?! THEY ARE THE ONES THAT SWORN TO PROTECT THE POPULACE! TO PROTECT THOSE THAT CANNOT PROTECT THEMSELVES! WHY SHOULD THEY CARE ABOUT THE RANKS IN THE FIRST PLACE!? IT'S FUCKING STUPID!" Rex took a moment to catch his breath after that loud proclamation he made to Sano.

Sano knew what Rex was talking about, since she was one of the victims of said 'staged fights' as they were called. When she was little, her parents were out of town to go visit their families who they hadn't see for a while. Sano was in the middle seat between her parents and conversations were animatedly occurring, from talking about what their relatives looked like to how did her parents know them. Suddenly, the train that they were on suddenly came to a complete stop for an unknown reason. The intercom came to life when it said that there was a villain on the loose and it had occupied the first car before going completely dead. Everyone who had heard that announcement was screaming in fear, some were calling for a hero to save them while others were trying to get out of the train. Sano's parents were huddling together with her, hoping that whoever was on the train with them would be stopped.

As if their prayers were answered, a hero did appeared from behind and everyone cheered that they were saved. Yet, the hero that had come didn't do anything. In fact, the villain that was on the train with them also appeared as well on the opposite side of where the hero is. Both villain and hero looked at each other and used their Quirks on the civilians! Everyone was scrambling about, trying to escape them, but they ended up dead on the ground, their bodies morphed into chunks of mean, blood splattered on the walls and organs thrown about. Sano's parents were no exceptions as they were caught in the mayhem, but as they could feel their life drifting away, they used whatever strength they had left and threw their child out the window, causing Sano to escape the brawl and run away as far as she could.

A week passed by and the news about the attack was spreading like wildfire as people were talking about how the hero was on the train and tried to stop the villain and failed to do so, causing heavy civilian casualties. Sano knew the real truth and went to the police, but they didn't believe her story. This caused Sano to be angry at the police for not believing her story and for the hero that caused the death of her parents. She walked down the street, thinking that all hope was lost and that there was nothing to live for in this life of hers.

" _Hey kid._ "

Sano looked up to where the voice was heard and saw Jack standing in front of her.

" _If you're looking for the one that killed your parents…_ "

Jack held out his hand to her and Sano looked at it with a curious gaze.

" _Then come with me. I'll show you who killed your parents…_ "

"...I know what you mean Rex. You remembered the day I first walked in, right? Since then, I've been researching the incident, using only the memory that I had as a child. Eventually, I found him and the villain that he'd worked with and confronted him that day. I… I don't understand why would people would do something like that…"

"Who knows really? The fact that you're still here today says otherwise."

Sano remained silent for a second before asking. "That still didn't answer my question. Why did you tell Izuku?"

Rex took out a cigarette from his pocket and lighter, lit the cigarette and began smoking. "HuuuuHaaaa… The reason why I told the kid was because I wanted to see if I can trust him with this information." Sano tilted her in confusion, "You see, while there are bad heroes today, you have to remember that there are also good heroes as well. Good heroes that would risk their own lives to save others and those are the kind of heroes that I can respect. When the kid ran out there to save his friend, I saw something in his eyes as he was watching the incident unfold in front of him. Something burning in his eyes filled with the determination and will. Something… that makes him a true hero."

Sano hummed in satisfaction as she heard the answer to her question. Truth be told, when she first saw Izuku Midoriya, she didn't think much of him as she heard much about him from Rex. She has yet to see Izuku in action since it was their first time meeting and all. "I see. And the second reason?"

Rex didn't say anything as he stared out the window that was besides him. When he turned to look at Sano, he adopted a sheepish grin and sheepishly rubbed his head. "And the second reason why… is that I wanted to try out that new gadget that the guys back over the Tech Department made."

Sano sighed in disbelief. "I should've known… why did I even bother?" With nothing to say to that, Rex quietly laughed and the two just sat in silence together before she had to leave for her post, leaving Rex to contemplate on what he should do with the door.

* * *

"So, you're currently a student, right?"

"Y-y-yes sir! I'm a student over at Orudera Junior High School sir!"

"Hmmm, I've heard some stuff about that school. Something about… bacon, I think?"

"Ah, no. That's not it sir…"

After Jack's sudden appearance and apparently kidnapped Izuku away from Rex and Sano, the two had found themselves on the roof of the building, where there were gym equipments positioned in various locations and a high fence that overlooked the city. Jack had properly explained himself that he was Quirkless like Izuku and he heard that Rex had taken him in as his student-in-training. Since yesterday, he'd been wanting to meet this boy and see for himself what he's capable of. "So, tell me kid. What is it that you can do? From what I've heard from Rex, you did practically nothing to that villain."

"A-ah… well, y-y-y-you see, I-!"

"Don't say anything. Your actions tell it all. You're a weak individual that clings onto their dreams and hopes like a lifeline, waiting for a miracle to happen while enduring the abuse you've taken over the course of your childhood and ended up at this point. Am I right?" Izuku was really shocked to hear that Jack was able to piece together his life with the little information that he was able to learn. Yet, as he heard his life unfold by the man, he couldn't help but feel a bit depressed by this. For all his life, he dreamed that he wanted to be a hero, yet to be told that he had to give up his dream was heartbreaking to him.

He didn't know if he wanted to keep living at that point when Bakugou told him to jump off the building. Suddenly, Jack yelled out. "ATTENTION!"

That alone caused Izuku to straighten his back at the sudden increased volume and saw Jack giving him a glare. "So, you want to become a hero, huh?"

"S-s-s-s-sir yes s-s-sir!"

"Quit your stuttering! You sound like a car's dying engine or something!"

"S-s-sorry sir!"

"What did I say about stuttering?!"

"...!" Sir yes sir!"

"Now that's more like it!" Jack folded his hands to his back and paced back and forth in front of Izuku, "Now, you may have already known that, but Rex had elected to have you as his student and train you in order to become a hero, right?! Well, I call bullshit on that!" Izuku was about to defend himself when Jack pinned him down with the most murderous glare, effectively shutting him up. "He may have accepted you as one of us, but I don't! In fact, if you want to be accepted here in this little group of ours, then you're going to have to train like hell! Train like it was the last of your pathetic life here in this world! Train to surpass those in front of you! Train until you can become a hero!

"To be a hero, you need to have a Quirk, smarts, strength and speed in order for you to become one! HOWEVER! While the first one maybe mandatory for most people, we are not most people! The last three are your second priority to have while training as you need to train the most important and vital part of your training!

"The will and determination of one's being!":

Izuku didn't look at Jack with an awestruck look nor a shocked expression, but like an inspired person would look at a hero. "Your will to stand up to those that are stronger to you! Your determination to save others in need when others have given up! To look into death's eyes and walk away laughing! And most importantly-!

" _TO GIVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT TO SAVE A LIFE! SO I ASK YOU! IZUKU MIDORIYA! ARE YOU WILLING TO RISK YOUR LIFE TO GIVE EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT TO SAVE A LIFE?!"_

" _S-S-SIR YES SIR! I'LL DO WHAT I CAN TO SAVE OTHERS IN NEED WHILE GIVING EVERYTHING I GOT!"_

"Well, that stuttering of yours is something we'll have to work on later, but for now, you've impressed me! So get ready kid! Your training starts now!"

 _ **At that point, I thought I was going to die. Jack-sama pushed me to my very limit, making me give everything I got in me to show him I have what it takes to become a hero. If I had to describe what he did to me during training, I would look like a madman that had just escaped from the asylum. But to me… it was worth those ten months. Because right here…**_

 _ **Was how I became the world's greatest hero.**_

* * *

 **Alright! That's done and we're well on our way to the training section of the anime! Now, I want to clarify that I will be following the canon, but it will diverge for a bit to make things a bit more... interesting. As one reviewer pointed out, what will Izuku have as his Quirk? The answer is... nothing! As it states, he'll have nothing on him, but his own bare hands and feet to fight.**

 **You may already know that the Quirkless in the anime are being made fun of and that they are mocked by the public that uses Quirk. However, even if they're weak, that doesn't mean that they're powerless. They can do anything, despite being Quirkless. Those that rely heavily on their Quirk will soon realize their own downfall of their career. In other words, they should realize that they should not rely on the pro heroes and should take it upon themselves to do the right thing. The Quirkless are weak, because they think that they are weak. They should realize that they do have the power to protect and that they can change the world when they work together.**

 **I hope that makes sense in a way. In any case, thank you for taking the time to read this story of mine. Also, thank you to my beta readers for helping me out refurbishing this chapter!**

 **See you guys later!**


	3. 10 months of Hell: One down

**Before you guys say anything about this chapter, I'll explain to you why this chapter is so short at the end. So, without further ado, let's roll with it!**

* * *

 _ **A glimpse into the future**_

" _Alpha team, come in! What's your location?!"_

" _As of now, we're currently relocating the civilians to a safer location and we're engaging the enemy as we speak! However, it's not looking good!"_

" _Understood, we're sending backup to your location, just hang tight!"_

" _Where's the fucking medic?! MEDIC!"_

" _We need backup, NOW!"_

" _Damn bastard! I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU! YOU HEAR ME?!"_

" _What's going on…?"_

" _This here is war. And this is where we belong."_

* * *

 **Later that day**

After the meeting between Rex, Sano and Jack, he went back home to his mother and told him that he was hired as a part-time employee at L&D. His mother, Inko Midoriya, was ecstatic that hear that he was hired by the restaurant where she met her husband. It was surprising to hear that the place he was working at was the place where his parents met for the first time, but when she was about to tell her the 'fun' night they had in the bedroom, he stopped her before she could get any further. In his bedroom late at night, he took out his school supplies and placed them on his desk. One of them being a letter given to him by Rex. He'd told Izuku not to open the letter until he had returned home, said something about containing sensitive information that was not meant for the public to see.

Seeing that it was safe for Izuku to open, he did so and as he opened the letter, a card fell out of the letter. He picked it up and he could see his information, date of birth, place of residence. Etc. It even had an accurate picture of him! He was shocked to see everything about him placed into one small card, but decided to ask Rex the next time he saw him. Instead, he opted to read the letter that was inside the letter.

" _Hey Izuku. I heard that my old man decided to give you a crash course of what our training looked like. Bet you didn't expect our training to be that harsh huh?"_ That elicited a groan from Izuku as he rubbed his sore back, " _Hahaha! I can already imagine the look on your face when I was writing this letter to you! It must've been hilarious! In any case, I want to let you know that you start working tomorrow after school and our training will begin after your shift is done. Now, your job is to clean the dishes in the kitchen and deliver the food over to the customers in the front. In the event that a customer should act rowdy, you let me or any other employees know. Now, as to why you didn't see anyone else in the restaurant besides us… Apparently, I had read the calendar wrong and it was a holiday for the employees and the restaurant was suppose to close on that day. Whoops."_ A giggle escaped from Izuku lips, " _Well, whatever. You know what to do. Don't be late. -Rex."_

" _P.S. You know our secret. I trust that you can keep quiet about it. Don't disappoint me."_

" _P.P.S. Don't be_ _surprised_ _when you come in tomorrow. Trust me, this is normal by our standards. See ya tomorrow!"_

With the letter being read and all, Izuku took the time to think about what Rex had written in the letter. Based on what he wrote, it's clear as day that he didn't want anyone knowing the Mercenaries were active and in hiding, if that wasn't obvious enough to him. Furthermore, it made him more excited to see people that didn't have a Quirk, fighting for the protection and justice of the people. Though, he was still upset about the part where they would help out the villains as well, but he'd have to see it for himself when he comes in tomorrow. With that in mind, he slept through the night, unaware the nightmare he'd have to face tomorrow.

* * *

 **The next day**

"We need sixteen orders of beef steak!"

"I need more bacon here!"

"Where the hell is that sandwich?!"

Izuku looked at the chaos unfold in front of him as he walked into the restaurant after school. Well, it was more like he was dragged into the restaurant the minute he got the front entrance. Anyways, it was a fair distance away from his school and when he got there, he saw a long line that started from the door to the end of the street. From there, it kept going on and one to the point where a pro hero was there to at an intersection to help out with the traffic that suddenly appeared. He gaped at the long line that had formed, but wasn't until a hand popped out from the door and snagged him inside.

"Kid! Thank god you're here! Quick, take these!" He didn't get to see who took him in, on the account that something covered his head, "The lockers are downstairs and on the left! It's the second door! Once you put that on, get to the kitchen and start helping out with the dishes and food!" The person left before Izuku got the chance to see who it was and looked at what was thrown at him. It was a uniform set like the one that Sano wore when he first meet her, only the vest was a light shade of red and the tie was dyed green. Deciding that this was not the time to be questioning this, he followed the instructions of what the figure had told him to do, dressed himself and hurried himself over towards the main entrance. When he got there, he could see so many people inside, some were outrageously loud while others were content to sit down and talk with their friends or relatives.

"Izuku-chan! There you are!" Izuku turned his head and saw Sano rushing towards him with a worried look on her face.

"Sano-san! What's-?"

"No time to explain! I'll lead you over to your station, but you'll have to figure out the rest for yourself!" Sano quickly grabbed Izuku by the shoulder and lead him towards the kitchen. Upon reaching the kitchen, he saw that it was large in comparison to the restaurant area. There were so many stations stationed around in the kitchen and so many chefs coming to and fro with many dishes ready to be eaten. Eventually, they managed to get to the back of the kitchen and there was relatively large sink with a few dirty dishes and the rest being cleaned. "Alright, here's your station! If you need any help, let anyone know! Until then, good luck!" With that, Sano parted ways with Izuku, leaving him to his job.

' _Well, I guess this is pretty easy… I mean, all I'm doing is washing the dishes and delivering food. How hard can that be?'_ Izuku thought to himself before starting his shift.

The minute he finished washing his first dish, so many people came over with piles of dirty dishes in their hand and dumping them into the sink, leaving Izuku to be very confused.

"Hey new guy! Thanks for the assist!"

"We're counting on you new guy!"

"Make us proud!"

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Nevertheless, he vigorously washed the dishes that he was handed by the employees and scrubbed away.

* * *

 **6:00 PM**

"Thank you! Please come again!" Sano was helping out with the last customer for the day before she closed the door and swinging the sign to 'Close'. Once that's done, she limped over to one of the nearest tables and plopped right down onto the chair. "Hoooo, thank fucking god that's over…"

The same can be said with nearly every employee that had been in the lunch rush, including Izuku. "Shit dude. I forgot how long these rushes are…" One employee complained to the others.

"You said it. God damn… since did we get a rush that big anyways?"

"Dude, you've been working here for how long and you don't even know yourself?"

"Shut up…"

Izuku was no different as he was rubbing his now sore arms while sitting away from the group. ' _Owww… I didn't think that dish washing could be so painful... I thought this would be easy…'_ Before Izuku could complain about his sore arms, someone else took the seat in front of him, scaring him a bit. The person that was sitting in front of him had his employee uniform on and the tie this time is blue. He had light blue eyes, blond hair and a round face.

"So, new guy, right?" Izuku nodded slowly at the person that was staring at him, "Huh, funny. I thought you'd be a big guy or something."

"...Huh?"

"Ah, whatever. Name's Kozato Rinji. Pleased to meet ya." He held out his hand to Izuku for him to shake.

"O-Oh! Izuku Midoriya! I-it's also nice to meet you!" He meet his hand halfway and shook on it.

"Pretty crazy, huh? Your first day here and it had to be the lunch rush of horror. Heh, I tell ya. When you think you've seen everything…"

Izuku sheepishly laughed at the remark Kozato made. Come to think of it, when he first came up to him, he'd expect Kozato to make some sort of witty comment or something the minute he'd sat across of him. It could either had been something about him being Quirkless or something about his appearance, anything goes really. In a way, Izuku had gotten used to the negative attention he'd received over the course of his childhood. "Uh, um… c-can I ask you something Kozato-san?"

"Well, if I wanted to make a joke, I would've said that you already did but, yeah sure. What's this you want to ask about?"

"W-well, not that I'm complaining or anything! But… why are you sitting with me? Shouldn't you be sitting over with your friends?"

Kozato looked at Izuku like he'd just ask something really stupid before his eyes widen in realization and chuckled. "Hahaha… oh man. Rex-sama wasn't kidding. You're really something, aren't ya?" Izuku tilted his head in confusion, "Right, sorry. Anyways, you look like you needed someone to be with, so I thought, 'why not me?'. And so, here I am!"

"A-are you sure? I-I mean-"

"Yeah, sure. It's no problem. Honestly, you look pretty chill to hang out with."

Izuku blushed at the compliment that Kozato gave him. Now that he'd gotten a better look at Kozato, he had this calmness around him that soothes him. The way that he talked to him and how he looked at him, it was all new to him that it overwhelming. It made his face blush a bright red, something that Kozato took notice of. "You feeling alright there? You're, uh…"

"O-oh! I'm fine!"

"If you say so… say, have you wondered where all these people come from? You know? The employees?" Izuku shook his head at that and Kozato nodded in understanding, "Understandable. Most of the employees here are a bit sensitive due to their past, but since it's your first day here, I figured that you must have some sort of past that's keeping you from talking to others."

"N-No! It's not like that at all! I just… have a hard time talking with people, that's all."

Kozato hummed in an understanding tone and talked with Izuku for the duration of their time together. It was still overwhelming to him, but it felt nice to have this moment, at least for a while anyways.

"...And so, this guy just started to ram his head onto the door and Jack-sama had to literally kick him out of the restaurant before he could anymore damage! How crazy it that?" Kozato just finished telling Izuku another story and Izuku was chuckling loudly after the story ended. It was crazy to hear that the founder of the restaurant would do something like that all just because of food. It was… quite nice actually.

"Um, Kozato-san? How long have you been working here?" Izuku suddenly asked Kozato.

"Hmmm, I'd say about five years as of now. I know that you've started working today, but why the sudden question?"

"W-well, I was wondering if you had a dream or something. You've been here for a while and I…"

"Hey, no worries. I get ya. My dream… is to change society and let everyone know the true reality of heroes." Izuku knew where this was going, but didn't stop him. He remembered what Rex told him on the day, about how the heroes were people that seek fame and fortune and how the heroes would do anything to raise up the ranks. Before he came to work, he looked on the internet to see if what Rex had said to him were only just rumors and theories that was generally told to people. He came up with several theories about the subject, but none were concrete as what Rex had told him, so he decided to ask Rex for more information when he came into work.

"Hey kid! You there?"

A voice rang out and when Izuku turned his head, he could see Rex standing in front of him and Kozato.

"Hey boss. You need us for something?"

"No, just the kid. You finish counting all the money yet?"

"Not yet. Some of us are resting for a minute from that rush we'd experienced. Say boss? I heard about you training this one. What's the occasion?"

"That's something for you to find out and for me to get going. Come on kid. Let's go." Before Izuku can say anything, Rex turn around and walked off. Izuku quickly gave Kozato a brief bow and hurried after Rex, leaving behind a confused Kozato. Once they'd gotten out of hearing range, Rex spoke. "Sorry for dragging you out of there. Can't have anyone know what we're about to do."

Izuku panted heavily after he'd just walked several stairs up before catching his breath. "Why did you do that anyways? Didn't you tell anyone that I was training?"

Rex shook his head and turned to face Izuku with a serious expressions plastered on his face. "No, I didn't want them to start a panic amongst the employees. That's the last thing I need right now."

"Huh? What do you mean? Why didn't you tell them?"

"Only reason why is that most of the employees here are people that have lost their families or their friends due to a stage fight against a hero or a hero working with a villain of sorts. I don't know the exact details for each of the employee's past here, but I don't care either way. If anyone hears about you becoming a hero, then it would be catastrophic. For now, just me, my old man and mom know about you."

"O-oh… I see… Wait, mom?"

"Yeah. When I told my mom about you, she was… quite ecstatic to hear 'a boy so young'-her words, not mine- working here. She'd even bought a plane ticket just to meet you."

"S-seriously?! All just to meet me!? Doesn't she have somewhere to be?!"

"You kidding me? Whenever she finds the person cute to cuddle with or… something else entirely, she'll just abandon whatever she's working on and come straight back. It's… pretty endearing, if you ask me." With nothing to say, Izuku opted to chuckle weakly and from there, both of them continued to walk up the stairs in silence. With everything that had just happened to him today. Izuku figured that he'd have to ask Rex about the heroes another time.

Right now, it's time for training to begin.

* * *

 **Four hours later**

"Argh!" _THUD!_

"Come on kid! That all you got? I could still punch you right out of here and be home in time for dinner!"

Right after the talk between Rex and Izuku, they made it to the roof, where Jack was waiting for them. Rex explained that Jack would be helping them out until the Yuuei entrance exam. Primarily, Jack would be focusing on Izuku's muscle while Rex would be helping out with his reflexes. Once they got their schedule set up, Rex went back downstairs to help out the employees with the aftermath. When the first hour rolled around, Jack made Izuku do about twenty pullups, twenty sit ups, twenty push ups, five kilometer run and twenty weight lifts. Needless to say… it made Izuku sore to the point where he couldn't lift up his arms anymore. When the next hour rolled by, Jack made Izuku spar with him for only a few minutes, to see where the boy was in power terms.

Izuku was planted in the ground within seconds of meeting Jack halfway.

After that, Jack decided to put the spar on hold until Izuku has gained some muscles. Two hours later and this is where we are right now. "Uh, kid? You alright down there?" A groan can be heard from Izuku as he slowly gets back on his feet. "Ah, you're alive! That's good to see and hear! BWAHAHAHA! We'll take a few minutes break and get right into it!" Another groan is heard but this time it was in suffering.

"Um, Jack-san? Why did you start to run towards me? You didn't do a countdown." Izuku asked Jack after a sip of his drink-that he got from Jack-and a few minutes of silence.

"Well, what did you expect? Villains to give you the time to actually prepare before a battle? Feh, if that were true, then we'd have all the heroes and the villains giving each other courteous bows from time to time. No, the real world doesn't work like that. It's either us or them. That's how the world works."

Izuku slowly nodded in understanding and was about to go back to drinking his drink, his head shot back up in break-necking speed. "Oh yeah! I wanted to ask Rex a question, but he'd seemed busy. Jack-san, is it true about what Rex-san said? About how the heroes would do things to raise up the ranks?"

Jack didn't say anything for a moment as his eyes were being shadowed by his hair. After what seemed to be an eternity, he spoke. "Yeah, it's true. Everything you heard about the heroes and the villains is correct. The villains sometimes are people that have been accused for crimes that they didn't commit and are forced on the run and the heroes are people with quirks that would do heinous things to rise up the ranks. Whether it be staged fights, murdering innocent people to make it look like an accident, etc., they _will_ do anything to rise the ranks. If you want proof, I can send you videos of this. Just a warning, you might not like what you see on these videos." One look from Izuku was all he needed and he sighed to himself. "Don't say that I didn't warn you. Now," Jack patted Izuku's back and walked towards the field. "Let's continue training. Don't hold back!"

Izuku quickly finished what was left of his drink and quickly gotten to his position. Needless to say, training was a lot harder than before, but Izuku pressed forward, determine to do whatever it takes to become a hero. But one thing did linger in his mind after training…

How bad could the videos be anyways?

 _ **One month down, nine more to go.**_

* * *

 **So, you're probably wondering why this chapter is so short comparing to the other two chapters. Well, it's very simple. I got something special planned in mind for Izuku, so I decided to put in what you might call a montage of how Izuku's training plan looks like. So for now, each chapter I post will be somewhat short as I want to showcase some of Izuku's modified training, along with how the world of heroes is actually less pretty than you think. Keep in mind that I will try take on the realism of how many heroes would do horrendous things to rise of the ranks. Think back to the #2 hero, Endeavor. I know that he doesn't do those things, but let's be honest here, he's kinda of a dick, ya know?**

 **Let's also not forget about how some heroes would actually pay the villains to fight with them, only to have them in jail later on and all sorts of other things. So, if you're a bit squeamish about what is yet to come, don't say I didn't warn you.**

 **But for now, think of this chapter as an introductory chapter for what is yet to come. Thank you for taking the time to read this story of mine and thanks to my beta readers for helping me out on this one.**

 **See you guys later!**


	4. 10 months of Hell: Skipping right along

**Hey guys! Sorry about leaving you guys in the dark for so long! With my college exam coming around the corner and having several family issues, it's kinda hard to find the time to continue this story. Luckily, I've managed to get some parts of this story ahead of time and the next chapter as well, so that's good!**

 **Fortunately, those are done and I'm able to continue this story!**

 **Unfortunately, I won't be able to post the next chapter on the holidays as I will be spending some time with my family. Hopefully, those family issues that I've mentioned earlier have passed permanently and that it won't be a terrible holiday. Here's to Christmas and to the New Years! Happy Holidays everyone and thank you for taking the time to read this story!**

 **See you guys in the next one!**

* * *

As time went on during Izuku's training, he felt his bones ache and his body bruise His mother was worried that Izuku might've got himself into trouble, but she was even more worried that he told her that he was training with someone more violent. Inko might have almost fainted on the spot if it wasn't for Izuku's quick thinking. He told her that he'd be even more careful during their training sessions and that he'd bring the person that took him in as his student. It did the trick, calming his mother down significantly.

"I just don't want you to get hurt is all Izuku dear. I know that out of everyone, you wanted to be a hero the most. I just want you safe."

Izuku didn't stop hugging his mom after that.

After dinner, Izuku said his goodnights to his mother and went to his room. He then took out a small disk from his bag and set it aside while getting his computer out from his desk. Izuku looked at the disk that was besides his computer as his thoughts wandered back training.

 **000**

 _With training regiment done for the day, Izuku was sore to the bones as he laid there on the ground breathing heavily as he_ _tried_ _to regain his breath. Jack left not too long as he went to go grab that footage he'd promised him. Izuku used this time alone to sort out his thoughts. 'If what Jack-san said is true, then why hasn't anyone said anything?_ _Surely, there must_ _have been_ _someone out there that reported this. Unless the hero in question somehow has more influence on the people than we'd thought before. Then again, there's been no cases being made public, so how would they able to get any footage of this happening? Or… maybe he could lying about it. No, that doesn't make sense. They wouldn't just told me for the heck of it. It's true that they did told me the reason why they decide to tell me their secret. A dangerous secret, no doubt, unless-'_

" _Hey, you gonna lay there mumbling to yourself or do I have to knock some sense out of you again?" Izuku shot straight back up and turned to see Jack looking at him like he was crazy. In his hand, he could see a plastic disk in his hand that had '_ SECURITY FOOTAGE' _written on the disk. "Anyways, here's that proof you want. Just a little warning though, you might not like what you see in this here disk, but it's the truth."_

" _I just want to know what you said to me was real or not. I… I just don't want to believe that the heroes that inspired so many people to become heroes as well would do something like this! I… I…"_

 _Jack didn't say anything as he watched Izuku looked down at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing to look at. He then sighed like he'd expected this._ " _Look, I know that you like heroes a lot. And I do mean a lot, but you should know that the world we live in isn't like that. Heroes aren't all sunshine and rainbows, they don't help out with the little things, the world's cruel like that. Anyways, my point is, sooner or later, you'll find out what the real world is like. And until then," He_ _tossed_ _the disk to Izuku and he fumbled with the disk before he finally got a hold of the disk. "In any case, don't say I didn't warn you."_

 _Izuku look at Jack as he was walking towards the stairs, mumbling something about beer. After that, he gathered his things from the locker room and went home._

 **000**

Izuku knew that the world wasn't what it seemed since he was a victim of bullying, but the world of heroes…he didn't want to believe what Jack had told him. He wanted to deny the facts that was presented to him, to deny what he had been told by Rex and Jack. Yet here he was, with his computer in front of him and the disk that Jack gave him playing on his computer. He looked at his computer for what seemed like a long time until he mustered up his courage and clicked on the play button.

He didn't get that much sleep that night.

* * *

Next day came rolling by and it was the same routine that he'd been accustomed to ever since he was hired. As he came into the restaurant, he would go down to the locker room, change into his uniform, go into the kitchen, get started on the dishes as quickly as he could do before the next wave came in, get the dishes from the kitchen to the customers, etc. Everything would be fine at first, but once they thought that they were in the clear, things would eventually descend into chaos. At some point, more and more customers would come for some reason and the chefs and waiters had to work a lot harder than they did before. Next thing they knew, they were out of ingredients to make the dishes, so they had to close the restaurant early. Once that was done, every employee, including Izuku, went over to the dining area and slump down onto the chairs or onto the floor.

Afterwards, Kozato would come by and they would talk (In this case, Izuku would listen politely and Kozato would talk his ear off) and it would go on until Rex or Jack appeared to take them back to the roof for training and have everyone count the money. Once they got to the roof, they would explain each of the courses that they went through and have Izuku go through that course until it was time for him to go back home.

That is, until…

 _BAM! POW! WHA-POW!_

"Come on! Is that all you got!?"

"Not done yet!"

Two figures were fighting against each other head-to-head as they were locked into battle. Izuku didn't mind watching from the sidelines, but he wanted to know why he was observing two of the employees fighting against each other. From what Jack told him, he said that he would gain a better understanding on what one should do when faced against an enemy that had the advantage.

"What happens if you're facing someone stronger, faster or smarter than you? You have to use whatever you got around you to gain the upper hand. See that person there?" Jack pointed to the one that was getting tired and was slowly losing ground. "Now that guy over there," He then shifted his finger to his opponent to see that he wasn't tired at all and seemed to be hitting all the right places. "He's using his surroundings to gain the upper hand, but if you're not careful enough…" The one losing the battle was about to lose all hope of winning until he saw something in his vision and went for it.

"You could lose everything."

The one that was losing the battle previously somehow managed to turn the tides against his opponent, causing him to fall on his butt. The one that was once losing the battle had somehow turned the tables on his opponent during that moment of distraction. Izuku knew immediately what Jack was talking about the second the one that was losing the battle won. He was able to use his surroundings to gain the upper hand during the battle and used it to its full potential, making him win the battle. Izuku mentally made note of this before he was once again thrust back into training.

* * *

"So, how goes that training of yours Izuku? Getting any better?"

"Um, i-it's going well… To say the least…"

"Man, if what Jack and Rex said is true about you, then it's no wonder why you're the only one trying so hard during training."

After Izuku's shift had ended and the day was over, Rex had everyone go to the roof, find a partner and spar against each other. While everyone was able to find a partner to spar against, Izuku was left alone with no one to train with. However, Kozato came up to him and asked him wanted to be partners for today's training sessions. Before Izuku could agree, Kozato grabbed his hand and dragged him towards an empty field and both of them stood on opposite ends of the field. Heeding Jack's advice about using his surroundings, he used the dirt from the field to blind Kozato in the eyes before rushing to him with the intent of knocking him out. What didn't know at the time was Kozato was smirking when Izuku did that. Instead of Izuku hitting him in the head, Izuku's fist went straight past Kozato's head and he appeared right behind him. Before Izuku could do anything, he was immediately on the ground with Kozato's foot on his chest.

"Didn't expect that, did ya?" Izuku just groaned in pain, confirming Kozato's point.

Few hours went by and everyone who had trained ended up going back to the locker room to change and call it a day. Two individuals, however, sat down on one of the benches and were talking to each other about their techniques. "So, how long have you been working here Kozato-san?"

"Well, I've been for about… maybe four, five years? I've lost track of how long I've been here. But anyways," Kozato shifted his position to where he was looking at Izuku. "Tell me how Rex employed you. How'd you get into this business?"

Izuku shifted uncomfortably in his seat as he was weighing his options before him. "W-well, I was in a mess and Rex came to save me. After that… he offered me this job, along with the training."

"Well, that does sound like Rex after all. He always comes in whenever he can. That even happen to most of the people that worked here. Hell, even some of the employees that worked here even lived in this building."

"Wait, there are people living in this building? How many of them are living here?"

"Well, let's see…carry the two…about a thousand?"

Izuku looked at Kozato with a shocked expression on his face. At first glance, he didn't look much, just someone that was making a living. Instead, he was the sole reason why there are so many people working at the restaurant. When he first entered the restaurant, he didn't see that many people working at the time. He'd only assumed that most of the employees were off for the day, but to learn that there were people living in a restaurant was surprising. It's not uncommon to hear that most people that worked in certain business would often live in the places that they worked at, but never did he hear that this many people were all living under one roof.

It was a lot to think about.

"There's that many people living here?! But, but this building doesn't look like it can hold that many people!"

Kozato looked at Izuku as if he'd just seen something really incredible and had already forgotten. "You serious? You've been working here for how long again?"

"Um, about a month so far? Why?"

Kozato just groaned in pain, leaving a very confused Izuku. "No wonder Rex didn't tell you everything…" Kozato muttered to himself before addressing back to Izuku. "I don't know if you noticed or if Rex told you this, but some of the employees here don't have a home to go to. Not because they don't want to, but because a hero that wasn't decent came into their lives and made it miserable." Izuku knew what Kozato meant when he meant 'decent'. Izuku remembered the talk between him and Rex when he asked Rex about what the difference between decent and good heroes. Apparently, decent heroes are people that would go above and beyond the call of duty and help those in need during desperate times. Good heroes are those that do whatever is necessary to rise the ranks, no matter the consequences. "It's sad really. Many people that looked up to heroes don't know the cold reality that is right there in their faces. Hell, even the new heroes that are starting to become popular are using these tactics for their own purposes,

"Not only that, most of the employees here are people that were caught in such tactics themselves. It's harsh, but that's life, I guess. If it weren't for the boss though, we wouldn't be here right now talking to each other right now."

"You really respect Rex and Jack that much, do you?"

Kozato nodded solemnly at Izuku. "Yeah, they go so far for other people, whose lives were ruined by the very heroes that help yet destroy us. For me, I consider them true heroes." Izuku could see that Kozato was talking about Rex and Jack in admiration. However, he did wonder when Kozato joined them and if he was one of the victims of these 'hero tactics', as Rex would call it, but he didn't want to make him feel uncomfortable by making him tell all of his childhood, so he didn't. As the two continued to talk, they left the restaurant after the sun had set and they soon parted ways.

* * *

 _ **The Second month**_

* * *

It was another day at the restaurant and there were a lot less customers than before. Not saying that there were no customers at all, just saying that there were some customers to make a slow day today. Izuku was serving the dishes to the customers, Rex was working in the kitchen; explicitly telling everyone to stay out. Izuku didn't know why he told everyone to stay away, but his fellow employees knew what he was talking about, so he followed their lead as to not get in Rex's way. Sano was back at the counter, leading customers to their tables and taking their orders. Kozato was also helping Izuku serving dishes and taking orders with Sano, where he would sometimes make some sort of cheesy lines to her and Sano would often bonk his head, leaving a goose egg on him. Everything was fine until…

 _BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!_

A loud explosion could be heard from the entrance. Everyone looked towards the source, curious as to what made that noise. Izuku, on the other hand, was scared shitless and immediately froze upon seeing who was at the entrance. Once the smoke cleared up, everyone in the restaurant could see several figures holding an arsenal of weapons and a few that didn't for some reason.

The leader, the one who had a shark mask on his face, strutted his way up in front of the group while holding a heavy artillery weapon. "Alright, listen up everyone! What you're witnessing right now is a robbery! Stay where you are and no one gets hurt!" No one in the restaurant moved an inch. Actually, now that Izuku had gotten a clearer look at the situation, it seemed that no one is scared, just a bit peeved.

This only angered the leader as he shouted to his men to ready their weapons and open fire at the people. Izuku's eyes widened in shock and just when he was about to run, something pulled him out of his shocked state. He looked to his right to see Kozato holding onto his arm and smiling. "Kozato-san?! W-what are you doing?! We have to-!" Kozato's response was to place a single finger up to his lips and point over to the commotion. Izuku didn't know as to why Kozato wasn't freaking out, but when he looked back to where those men were, he saw his answer. Rex had somehow made his way over to the group and knocked out several members of the group, leaving only the leader and several others to see the carnage.

"Wha… what are you!?" the leader shouted in fear.

Rex took the time to take out a cigarette from his pocket, light it up and take a long drag. "First, I want to ask you something. What makes you think you can just order around like you own the place? Last I checked, this isn't your place at all!"

"So what?! I'm going to rob this place blind! Once I'm done robbing this place, I'm going for you next!" The leader pointed his weapon at Rex as he plastered a maniacal grin on his face, "So, do you have any last words you want to spill before I blow your fucking brains out?"

Rex just stood there with his cigarette in his mouth as if nothing happened just now. He exhaled the smoke cloud from his cigarette and looked up to the ceiling. "Tell me something. Do you know what's the difference between you and me?"

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?" The leader exclaimed.

"The difference between you and me is simple really." Rex suddenly ran over to the leader in a breakneck speed, stunning the leader in the process. However, that only lasted for a few seconds before the leader regain his wits and ordered his men to kill him. The leader's men charged at Rex with their weapons drawn at him and opened fired. Like when Rex first saved Izuku, he miraculously dodge the bullets and slowly made his way towards them.

"First off, you really can't fire for shit." Rex jumped up towards the ceiling and planted his foot firmly on the roof. He then push off the ceiling and gave one of the leader's men and nasty kick to the head.

"Second, you threaten my customers with your weapons. That's a big no-no in this restaurant." Rex jumped onto a random empty table and pulled out two handguns from the inside of his jackets. The leader immediately knew what he was about to do and quickly ordered his men to fire. Rex quickly flipped the table he was just on and took cover before the bullets came flying. One by one, the bullets hit the table, but what was strange is that the bullets aren't going through the table and are merely hitting the table. From the other side of the table, Rex pulled out his guns and started firing at the men. Each shot from Rex's gun came closer and closer to the men until…

 _PING!_ "Gah!"

One of the shots managed to hit one of the men in the head and it knocked him out cold. The others that were firing at Rex saw this and panicked a bit. Soon after the first one, several others followed suit and were knocked out. Only one remained and that guy was on the verge of pissing his pants. "Fuck this! I'm out of here!" The guy threw away his weapon, ran past his leader-who was yelling profanities at him-and was never seen again. The leader looked at his men who were all knocked out from the firefight with disgust.

"You fucking idiots! Do I have to do everything myself!?" The leader fired his weapon and while he was firing, he took cover near one of the tables that had been flipped over during the initial encounter. Rex returned fire. The leader returned fire. Not one of them managed to hit one another and while the audience did like a good firefight, they were quickly getting bored.

Izuku looked at the gunfight with awe in his expression, but that soon morphed into fear as he soon realized that a stray bullet could accidently hit one of the customers. "K-Kozato-san! We have to get the customers out of here! Wait, in fact, why are the customers still here?! Shouldn't have we evacuated before all of this happened?"

"Geez, you really need to lighten up Izuku." Kozato picked his ear and fling whatever gunk was in his ear, "First, I need you to look at the customers for me real quick. See how they're not panicking?"

"But Kozato-san-!"

"Trust me on this. Now, look closely at the customers. Now, same question as before."

Izuku reluctantly looked at the customers, but what he saw shocked him. The customers were looking on the incident sure, but what was different about the usual panic and scramble, he found that the customers were looking at the incident with glee. Even the children the customers were looking at the incident with excitement.

"Mommy, mommy look! Rex is winning!"

"Now now dear. You mustn't go outside the bubble. You could get hurt."

"Yes mommy, I know."

At another part of the restaurant…

"So, who do you think's going to win this one?"

"Rex. Hands down, no questions ask."

"Yeah, kinda of stupid for me to ask. Still, you gotta feel bad for that dude, right?"

"Who, the guy that just broke into this restaurant? Please, he should've known what was coming to him."

Izuku couldn't believe what he was seeing and hearing. All of the customers were just talking to each other as if nothing noteworthy happened. "You see? No one's panicking at all. So don't worry about it."

"But- but how can they not be panicking at all? There's a shootout happening right before their eyes! What if a stray bullet comes through?"

"That's where those," Kozato pointed at one of the tables and upon closer inspection, Izuku could see something shimmer around the table. "Come in. There are protective bubbles surrounding each tables in the restaurant. I'm not sure how they work, so don't ask. In any case, back before you came were hired, the restaurant's been hit by all sorts of criminals. Quirk users, regular criminals; you know, the sorts you find in a dark alleyway. Each time someone attacked the restaurant, one of the customers either gets taken as a hostage, used as leverage to get our money or used them as getaways. Rex decided that enough was enough and had some people of ours installed these bubbles to prevent the criminals from using the customers as a tool. That way, the customers can enjoy watching something like what we're watching right now and prevent any villain from using the customers. Pretty neat, huh?"

Izuku didn't answer Kozato's question as he was in awe that such a device existed. For all he knew, those bubbles could be used by pro heroes as a shield that can prevent them and the civilians they saved from getting any further injuries. Just as Izuku was thinking about the bubble's most effective use, he could hear the gunfight slowly ceasing. He looked back to the fight to see Rex fighting against the leader up close. The leader had taken a shark-like form, which Izuku immediately mentally categorized in his mind, and was trying to land a hit on Rex. 'Trying' being the key work as the leader couldn't get a hit on Rex at all. Rex would dodge almost every attack that the leader would make, only getting some scrapes and bruises.

"God fucking damn it! What the hell are you?!" It was easy to tell that the leader was getting frustrated, despite having a Quirk. The leader looked around to see what he could use against Rex and spotted Izuku with Kozato. "You there! You're mine!" The leader shot towards the two with incredible speed. Izuku barely registered what was going on until it was too late. Izuku closed his eyes and screamed as he was about to get hit until-

 _POW!_

Without any warning, the leader raised his arms to block the incoming attack, but that didn't stop the force of the attack sending him up in the air before landing back down. Izuku still prepared himself as he screamed, but when nothing happened, he slowly opened one eye to see Kozato in front of him. "Damn kid. You really need to prepare for something like that." Kozato stood there with his eyes on the leader and while holding his fist up to him.

"Hey, you guys alright?" Rex called out from where he was.

"Yeah, we're fine boss! The usual as always?"

"Yeah!"

Kozato smirked at that and bend his knees down a bit before getting into his ready position. "Alright! Here I go!"

"Wait, what the hell are you-?!" The leader didn't get to say much as his face suddenly morphed into a pained expression with his eyes bulging out and him spitting saliva when Kozato suddenly punched the leader so hard that the leader flew to Rex.. Rex then pulled his right leg back and slammed into the leader's stomach when he came into his range and sended him flying up towards the ceiling. Kozato later came running and lept up about the same time as Rex did, only Rex jumped a bit higher than Kozato.

"Finally, here's the third thing that's different between you and me. While you sacrifice your men to fulfill your goal and cowardly hide behind them, I work together with my people on the frontline and make sure everyone gets out alive. Oh, and here's the real kicker." The leader looked like he was about to pass out if it weren't for the fact that Rex slammed his leg at the leader's stomach.

From there, Rex moved.

After the first hit, Rex hit another part of the leader again, again and again. It was at that point that Rex was going faster than he was before, only leaving behind afterimages of himself. Whenever the leader was about to blackout, Rex would kick him hard enough for him to regain conscious. The kicking kept going and going until Rex slammed the leader's stomach towards the ground. By the time the leader was nearing the ground, Kozato appeared out of nowhere, ramming his fist into the leader. The leader yelled out in pain before passing out from the excruciating pain.

As soon as Rex landed, he pulled out a cigarette, lit it and started inhaling the cancer stick.  
Then… Rex spoke.

" **No one fucks with my family.** "

No one said a word after that, not even the customers that were close to Rex. After a few minutes of silence, someone in one of the bubbles started clapping, followed by another and another and another. Seconds later, everyone was clapping at the end of the fight and what Rex had just said.

"Bravo! Bravo!"

"Yeah! You the man Rex!"

"Woooohooo! That was awesome!"

Izuku couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. From his point of view, it looked like the leader had the upper hand due to him having a shark-like form from his Quirk. Instead, Rex was able to turn the tide with only his wit and his strength. And to boot, he was also Quirkless!

Just what was Rex?

"Hey, you alright there kid?"

Izuku jolted in shock as Rex suddenly appeared in front of Izuku. "I-I'm fine Rex-san. I-It's just that you've managed to beat him so quickly. How did you do it?"

Rex just smirked at the clueless Izuku and rubbed his head. "That's something you'll learn during your training. Now, if you'll excuse me." Rex walked past Izuku and towards the kitchen. "I need to get back to work. Same goes for you too kid." Izuku watched Rex move towards the kitchen entrance before disappearing out of sight. Izuku wanted to ask Rex more about what kind of techniques that he used during that fight and what did he use during that fight. But he knew that all the answers would eventually be answered for him within due time.

And so he went back to work.

* * *

 _ **The Fourth month**_

* * *

After the battle between Rex and the gang leader, the day was cut short due to the police arriving on the scene. Rex explained to the police everything that had transpired and the police took the leader along with his gang away. A random police chief came up to Rex, asked him basic question and soon enough, the police were on their way with the criminals in tow. Izuku went back home and upon returning home, Inko came running towards him with a worrying expression plastered on her face.

Apparently, word got around fast as news from before was appearing on screen. Inko frantically checked Izuku once over to see if there were any injuries on him and while she was doing so, Izuku was also frantically telling his mother that he was fine and that Rex was able to keep it that way.

Needless to say, that didn't detract from Inko making sure Izuku was alright.

A month rolled by and Izuku's training was going smoothly. During training, he'd noticed that he could move a bit faster than he did before and that he was more aware of his surroundings. Even after training was done, whenever Izuku would almost slip on the floor while carrying the food, he would managed to balance all of the dishes on him before falling down. Rex reprimanded him for wasting food like that and docked his pay for the week.

"It's just Rex being himself, Izuku. No need to worry about it," Kozato said to Izuku one day in the locker room.

"But why would Rex-san do that? We could make more of it if we wanted to." Izuku wondered as to why Rex would make that face whenever someone wasted food.

"Well, from what I heard is that Rex was taught by his old mentor about food and apparently, his old mentor drilled into Rex's mind that food is sacred and that no one should waste it." Kozato shrugged as he tried to recall the memory. "Either that, or something else. I'm not entirely sure." Izuku could only nod at that explanation.

On the next day, Izuku was training with Sano for the day as Rex wanted to Izuku to do some kicking exercise. Sano volunteered for this as she wanted to see how Izuku was progressing with his training. So far, it was…

 _BAM! POW! WHAM! "Oof!"_

Izuku slammed onto his bottom as he just got his ass whooped by Sano. Sano, on the other hand, still had her leg up in the air and watched as Izuku fumbled down. "Well, your kicks are getting to a point where you can hit," Sano let her leg back to the ground and walked towards a nearby bench where a couple of bottled waters are sitting. "But they lack the aim and control of a good kick."

"Haa… what… Haaa… do you… mean…. Sano-san?" Izuku wheezed while still sprawled on the ground.

"For instance, your kicks do have the sufficient power they need in order for you to damage your opponent, but they lack the precision they need in order for your kicks to work."

"My… precision?"

"Yeah. If you're aiming to to knock someone out, you'd aim for the weak points on their body," Sano said as she took a sip of water from her bottle. "Every kick that you make has to aim at exactly where you want them to hit. You can't attack wildly, less you die because of your aim." Izuku nodded at Sano's words. It was true to what Sano had said. Hitting someone wildly wouldn't do anything to the person since that person may have a Quirk. Since the person's biology may be different due to their Quirk's, it may be possible that they don't have the same biology as a normal human. Which is why Izuku was taking this part of the training, to see if he could apply whatever knowledge he has on Quirks and use them to his advantage.

"HEY SANO-CHAN! THERE'S TROUBLE!"

A voice suddenly yelled out, making Sano and Izuku to turn their head towards the source of the voice. Upon seeing Kozato running up to them, it was clear that Kozato was out of breath by the time that he'd approached them. "Haaa… there's… Haaa… trouble…"

"Huh? Trouble? Is it more burglars again, 'cause we just-"

"NO! It's… it's worse than that… 'She's' here."

Izuku didn't know why Sano had a scared look on her face, but he didn't question it as she grabbed his shoulder and started making their way towards the elevator. "Ow ow ow ow! Sano-san! What are you-!?"

"We have to go, now!"

"Wh-what? What do you-!?"

 _BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM!_

Something landed in front of Izuku and Sano before they could take another step, creating a huge crater in front of them.

"Well, well, well…" Sano was shocked to hear such a melodic yet frightening voice while Izuku was confused out of his mind. A figure can be seen in the smoke as it slowly walked the duo. When the smoke cleared, they could see the figure clearer than before. "Who do we have here…?"

Izuku's eye almost bulged out of their eyes when he saw the figure partially wearing anything at all and immediately covered his eyes. From what he saw of the figure was a girl that looked to be twenty years old, flowing long red hair, wearing clothing that covered parts of her body, blond hair with various of accessories and to top it off, she was wearing sunglasses while holding an umbrella. "My, my! Who's the cute one?" Izuku didn't realize, but by the time Izuku opened his eyes, he could see the girl was right up on his face, making him fall back down. "Huhuhu… you're cute. I like that." For some reason, Izuku felt a bit of fear when the girl looked at him, almost as if…

She was the predator and Izuku was the prey.

" _ **I wonder how you would taste…**_ " _SLURP_

"..!" Izuku frantically looked around to see if Sano or Kozato were around, but he couldn't find them anywhere. The most logical reason would be that the impact of the shockwave was strong enough to have pushed both of them in opposite directions. Even if they were conscious, they wouldn't be able to get to Izuku in time. And so, it was that Izuku knew that with every minute that the girl slowly gains her distance towards him, Izuku couldn't help but reflect back into his life as-

 _WHA-BAM! "OI! DAMN WOMAN! CONTROL YOUR GOD DAMN APPETITE ALREADY WILL YA?!"_

A leg suddenly appeared in his peripheral vision as he saw the girl's head hurtle downwards towards the ground and as soon as it made contact, a small crater was formed. When Izuku managed to calm himself down by a margin, he looked towards to the person that had just saved him. He saw that it was Rex that had came to save him, but what was surprising was that Rex actually hit a girl. Rex didn't seemed to be the type to actually do something like that to a woman. At all.

"OOOOOOWWWWWWWWW! That hurts! Why did you have to hit so hard?!"

"Shut up! You were about to attack one of my employees! You don't get to say anything!"

Izuku was confused by this turn of events. One minute he was about to be killed by an unknown girl, the next thing he knew, Rex was giving the girl a scolding. What was even happening anymore? "Izuku, you alright? She didn't hurt you or anything, did she?"

"N-no. She didn't do anything at all…" Izuku said numbly.

"Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to punish someone who tried to suck out your blood!"

"Aw, but you don't need to do that!" Rex quickly turned around to see the girl no longer where she had been and instead right in front of Izuku's face again, "After all, he looks really cute~!" Izuku could only blush in embarrassment as this was the first time anyone made that sort of compliment to him.

Even if it was a girl.

"Haaaa. Nevermind that for now. Mom, I thought that your flight wasn't until this afternoon!" Rex exclaimed to the girl as she turned towards him.

"Well, I didn't want to wait in a stinky airport where I had to suffer disgusting men trying to touch me. So I flew." The girl said to Rex as she was googling over Izuku.

Once Izuku managed to gather his wits, he finally managed to ask Rex something. "R-Rex-san. Who… who's she?"

"Hm? Oh yeah. Forgot to mention this to ya. God, the one thing I forget to mention and it was this…" Rex muttered the last part to himself before clearing his throat, "Right, This is my mother, Rose Thunder."

"Hai, hai! It's a pleasure to meet you~!" Rose made a cute pose with one eye closed, tongue out, one hand on her hip and the other making a sideways L-shape on her forehead.

"..."

"..."

"...Huh?" Izuku was kinda dumbfounded as to what he had just heard from Rex.

"Don't go freaking out on me kid. This here is the result of a Quirk she has." Rex hastily informed Izuku.

"A Quirk?! What kind of Quirk does she have? I've only seen people with an age-reversing Quirk that allows the user to reverse their age at will and a Quirk where the user can steal someone's life force in order for them to sustain their current form! I've never heard a Quirk that actively stops the user's form! Oh, could this be a rare Quirk where the users can retain their life force from the sun or it could be a Quirk where-!"

 _POW!_ "Ow!"

"Will you calm down there?! You're starting to freak my mom out!"

"Actually…"

Izuku and Rex turned towards Rose to see that her face was flushed with red. "It's kinda making me hot to see the boy talking like that~. Keep going~!"

Izuku felt a shiver down his spine and just backed away slowly from Rose. "Oi! Don't go flirting with my employee!" Rose just did the same face, to Rex. Rex just huffed in frustration and continued his explanation. "Izuku, my mom's Quirk is rare in a sense that no one has ever seen before. That Quirk's called…Vampirism."

"Vampirism? What kind of Quirk is it?! What can it do to the user!?"

"Settle down, will ya!? I know that you're excited and… where did you get that notebook!?" Rex was in shock that Izuku had a notebook in hand and was looking at Rex with a starry-eyed expression. Rex just sighed as he pushed Izuku away from his face. "Nevermind that. Anyways, like I was saying, Vampirism allows the user to gain the features of a vampire, immortality, suck out blood, transform into a bat and can only move during the night. However, that's not the case as evident that my mother can walk during the day, yet she walks with an umbrella. Why, you ask? Well, it's simple really. While the sun won't automatically kill her, she does feel irritated and if she were to stay in the sun for too long, it kills her. Which is why she was an umbrella with her."

"A-and the o-outfit?"

"The outfit… that's just her thing." Rex could actually feel Izuku sweating along with him as they both turned to see Rose just polishing her nails with a nail polisher that she pulled out from who-knows-where. When she turned her head, she saw both Izuku and Rex just staring at her and just waved and smiled at them. After that, she went back to polishing her nails. "...anyways, she doesn't have immortality like the vampires do in the myths, she just ages more slowly than others. That's the basics of her Quirk. Anything else, you're gonna have to talk to her about it." Izuku nodded as he finished writing down that last bit of information into his notebook.

"If you're done Rex, introduce me to your new cute employee~! I'm dying to know who is this~!" Rose squealed in delight as soon as Rex was done introducing Rose to the boy.

Rex can only sigh at the display before hovering his hand over to Izuku. "Mom, this is Izuku, the newest employee to work here for the last few months. Now please don't suck him dry like you did before."

"Wait, what?!" Rex bonked Izuku's head before he could say anything else.

"Don't ask. It's not worth it. In any case, I'll let the old man know that you're here, Mom. Just… don't drink him dry, please." Izuku could hear the desperate tone in Rex's voice before he made his way towards the stairs.

Meanwhile, Rose glomped Izuku's side once Rex was out of sight. "Ah~! Izu-kun! You're just so cute to hold~!"

"Ah… ah! R-R-R-Rose-san! T-T-That's-!"

"What, Izu-kun?" Izuku was shocked to hear Rose change the tone in her voice of a sudden. It was kinda scary. "Why did my son hire you? From my own initial observation of you, you look pretty weak."

Izuku would've face-planted into the ground if Rose wasn't holding onto to him, so instead, he jerked his head downwards. "W-well, Rex-san offered the position to me and I just accepted it on a whim."

"Huuuuh? Is that so…?" Izuku can only nod as he didn't know where Rose's line of questioning was going, "Then, can I ask you something important?"

"Wh-what's that?"

"What's your dream?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, what is it that drives you to be where you are right now? The only reason I'm asking you this is because not only you are weak, but you've been through a lot, haven't you?"

Izuku immediately knew what Rose was talking about and looked down at the ground as he reminisced about the past. It was true that ever since childhood, Izuku was the victim of bullying and was targeted by most of the people that he once knew. Before everyone in his class had Quirks, Izuku would always help his fellow classmates and anyone that needed help with a smile, just like All Might. That changed when everyone had Quirks at the age of five and Izuku was the only one that didn't have one. The people that he once helped out made fun of him and occasionally would beat him up, just to show off their Quirks.

To everyone around him, he was Deku, the worthless one without a Quirk.

"Uh… Mmn! I… Back during my childhood, I was the one without a Quirk." Izuku didn't know why he was telling Rose his past, but for some reason, he felt that he could trust her, "Everyone had a Quirk that was amazing and useful. Even my best friend, Kacchan, had an explosive Quirk. I didn't have one and as soon as everyone heard that I was Quirkless, they made fun of me. I was… bullied for not having a Quirk like everyone else. They called me names, picked on me, even used their Quirks on me. Kacchan… he and I used to play together when we were kids, but… ever since he had his Quirk, he's been picking on me as well. Even gave me the nickname, Deku. Even during middle school, it followed me everywhere, the bullying. Before I meet Rex-san, during one of my class, Kacchan came up to me, used his Quirk on one of my notebooks and said that 'I should jump off the roof and hope that I get a Quirk in the next life.' At that point, I...I was tempted to follow his advice, just so that I could end it all…"

For a while, Rose didn't say anything, her eyes shadowed by her hair. Izuku could only look at the ground, having just told her the basics of his past, but it was enough for him to shed a single tear. Suddenly, Izuku could feel Rose's arms letting him go and heard her footsteps receding away from him. Confused by this action, Izuku looked away from the ground to see Rose heading towards one of the benches that didn't get destroyed when she first came and sat down. Once Rose sat down, she motioned Izuku to come sit next to her with a smile on her face. It wasn't like the smile from before, this one seemed to be… kind, in a way. Seeing no options, Izuku cautiously made his way over to Rose and sat beside her. Before Izuku could do anything, Rose wrapped her arms around Izuku's head and brought it closer to her chest. "R-R-R-R-R-R-R-Rose-san! Wh-wh-what are you-!?"

"Shhhhh…" Izuku gasped in surprised as Rose took in a motherly tone. It was like his own mother would always comfort him whenever he had a bad day at school or when Kacchan would bully him with his friends. This was… eerily similar. "It's alright… you've been through a lot. It's alright…"

"Ah... " Izuku could feel a few little tears coming out of his eyes when Rose spoke those words. Soon enough, streams of tears came flooding down from his eyes as he let a small noise from his mouth. Rose didn't say anything else as she let Izuku just cry his heart out once again. After about three minutes, Izuku calmed himself down and moved away from Rose's chest. "I'm… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry like that."

"Oh, it's fine. I've seen children who had so many things going on in their lives that they needed someone to talk to. You're not the first, don't worry." Rose giggled.

Izuku sheepishly rubbed his head as he blushed in embarrassment. 'Hehehe… I don't know what to say to that…"

"Well? Your dream, what is it?"

Izuku pondered that question for moment. Most of the employees don't know him very well on the account that Rex told him not to tell his dream nor tell them that he was training to become a hero. He didn't know Rose as she literally fell from the sky. He didn't know what her reaction would be if he just told her his dream. It also didn't help that most of the employees that were employed here have a bad history with pro heroes and would most likely have a negative reaction to his dream. "I… I'm not sure if I should tell you. I-It might upset you…"

Rose patted Izuku on the head as if to comfort him. "If you don't want to tell me, that's fine, but I'd rather know what that dream of yours is before I fully accept you."

"Eh? I-If I may ask Rose-san? Why do you want to know my dream? Is it… really that big of a deal?"

Rose hummed in thought before addressing Izuku. "You could say that. You may not have known this, but in this establishment, our employees have dreams. Dreams that they want to fulfill with their own two hands. Some have Quirks, but only see them as a tool to accomplish their dreams. You could say that dreams are a source of motivation that drives people to do amazing feats." Rose looked up to the sky and smiled. "Seeing people achieving their dreams like that… it makes me feel like I've been a part of something great."

Izuku can feel something resonating in his chest what Rose said. Something he'd never felt before…

Hope.

"So," Rose turned back to Izuku, still having that smile on her face, "What is your dream?"

Izuku looked a bit unsure whether or not he should tell Rose what his dream was, but after hearing Rose's speech on dreams, he felt that he could trust Rose just a bit. "O-Okay! I'll tell you what it is, j-just promise me that you won't suck me if it's bad?"

"Well.. I can't promise you that last part," Rose licked her lips sending Izuku the shivers. "But I will promise you that whatever your dream is, it won't be bad."

Izuku gulped before speaking. "Mmn! My dream…is to become a hero."

Rose didn't say anything for a while, which really concerned Izuku. Was it wrong for him to say his dream to Rose? Rose might have a grudge against pro heroes or something relating to heroes may have traumatized her in the past. Whatever it was, it was too late to take back what he said.

"So…" Izuku jolted when Rose spoke in a soft tone, "That's your dream? To be a hero?"

"Y-Y-Yes. Th-That's my dream. Ever since I was a child, I dreamed of becoming a hero like All Might. I wanted to be a hero that saves people with a smile. But that never came true. Instead, I was born Quirkless and was told that I couldn't be a hero and that I should give up on my dream. Everyone soon found out that I was Quirkless and made fun of me for being Quirkless and-!"

Before Izuku could say anything else, Rose suddenly chopped Izuku's head, leaving a goose egg. Izuku was holding his head in pain as he contemplated what just happened. "Izuku-chan?"

'H-Hai!" Izuku jolted up standing in fear when he heard Rose speak to him. Just then, he heard Rose giggled in amusement, making Izuku blush in embarrassment.

"Don't worry. I'm not mad at you. Just surprised is all." Rose explained.

"B-But, doesn't everyone that's working here hate heroes?"

"Yeah, they do. To some extent."

"EEEEHHHH?!"

"Don't worry Izuku-chan! I'm not saying you should abandon that dream! I'm saying you should pursue it! It's why you have my son training you, right?"

"R-Right! ...Wait, what?!"

Rose just bursted out laughing at Izuku's expression. "S-Sorry, but… PPPPPFFFFTTTTTHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Izuku's face turned even redder as Rose just laughed. Five minutes later and Rose had managed to calm herself down. "S-Sorry about that Izuku-chan. Yeah, I knew what your dream was from the beginning. My son told me all about you, saying that you're one of a kind. It seems like that's the case for you, isn't it~?" Izuku just rubbed his head sheepishly. "He'd even told me that fighting spirit of yours. How you went to rescue your friend when every hero that was on the scene couldn't do anything. You, a Quirkless child, moved when no one else did. My son told you that you can become a hero, correct?" Rose fully faced Izuku and pointed at him with a fiery expression on her face, "Then let me revise that statement for you! Izuku Midoriya…"

" _YOU WILL BECOME A TRUE HERO._ "

Izuku felt something in his chest, something that was beating so hard even harder when Rex told him that he can become a hero, something that he'd never felt before in his life.

Faith. He had everyone's faith in him.

"And that's why I'm going to help you on your training as well! Can't have my favorite cute boy dying on me, can't we~?" Rose blew a kiss to Izuku, but Izuku just laughed nervously as he didn't know what to say at that.

"Huh, so that's why you're training harder than the rest of us." Izuku was shocked to hear something other than Rose's voice and turned around to Kozato and Sano walking up towards them. The former looking a bit worse than wear while the latter looked a bit bruised, "And I was wondering why Rex was paying attention towards you. You trying to make me feel jealous here?"

"Kozato-san! I-It's not like-!"

"Ah, don't worry about it." Kozato waved his hand dismissively at Izuku, "Rex already told us the whole story. Especially to Rose. Seriously, when Rex told her that he'd taken someone under his wing, she was _begging_ to come over just to see who that person was! See, one time-" Izuku didn't hear the rest of what Kozato was saying as his mind just shut down.

Apparently, Rex told everyone.. Everyone knew what his dream was…

Ohhh boy.

"Huh? Yo Izuku. You alright there? You don't look so good."

Izuku jolted as he felt something shake and saw Sano looking at him with a concerned look. "Ah, I-I'm fine! It's just… I never did expect everyone to accept my dream, let alone just let me continue my training. I'd thought you would've stop me…"

"Well, that last part on what you said was true. A lot of people, whose lives were ruined by fake heroes absolutely hated the idea of you becoming a hero, despite not knowing you. In fact, just last week, a group tried to dump a bucket of hot oil on top of your head while you were working on the dishes. If Rex hadn't checked in on you, you would've gotten a third-degree burn on you."

"Ah, so that's why…"

Sano nodded. "Yeah. The people that tried to harm you had been dealt with accordingly. They won't try to harm you ever again."

"Y-You mean…?! You… killed them!?"

"What, no!" Kozato decided that it was the best time to intervene, "The people that tried to harm you weren't killed or anything! They're just… uhhh…"

"Basically, I had them do a 100 page essay on how wrong it is to attack an employee like that." Kozato gave Rose a sigh of relief and a thumbs up.

"Oh, is that so?"

"After that, I had them go down the street and read it out loud to the public. All while they're in the nude."

"O-Oh…"

Apparently, no one had the courage to say anything after that. Kozato and Sano just back away slowly from Rose, Izuku felt as though this was his fault to begin with and was likely wanting to find those people and apologize to them and Rose just had a lewd thought in her head and was drooling just by the thought of it.

"A-Anyways, I'll support you however I can Izuku-kun." Sano said.

"Same here Izuku! I don't like heroes that do anything for fame and popularity, but if it's you becoming a hero, then I'll do whatever I can to help you succeed!" Kozato added with a grin.

"Everyone…" Izuku felt his eyes getting a bit wet after hearing something that he hadn't heard in a long time.

Rose just chuckled under her breath as she just sat on the bench, watching the three, now talking about random stuff. In her mind, Rose could already see Izuku fitting in with Kozato and Sano, how they were acting around him like he was their little brother. It lifted her spirits a bit to see the three of them talking like nothing's wrong with the world. It reminded Rose of something from the past. A group consisting of her, Jack, Rex and someone else in their group, laughing without a care in the world. It made Rose sad a bit before she looked back to the group with a determined look on her face.

If there was one thing right now, it's that she swore that she would not let any harm come to her new family. Not now, not ever.

On the other side of the roof where two figures were standing beside the entrance to the roof. Rex was standing behind a window, smoking his cigarettes and watching the event unfold in front of him. Jack, on the other hand, was leaning on the door frame and was watching Izuku with interest. "So, that's why you wanted to train him personally. Heh, if I had known, I would've upped his training."

"Well, excuse me for not finding the right time for telling you." He took a minute to inhale the cigarettes, "Haaaaa… Besides, if I had told you about his dream in front of everyone, how would everyone react to that?"

"Fair point. Still though, he's improving, just like you said he would."

Rex look at the sight in front of him. Izuku was getting his head nogged by Kozato and Sano was just laughing at the sight. Something flashed in his mind when he saw them having fun. A person laughing beside him and were just having the time of his life. Rex couldn't help but have a small smile on his face as he was reminiscing the past. "So… what do you want to do now?"

Jack didn't say anything else and stood up from his position. "Well, one thing's for certain now…" He then walked back downstairs as he said one last thing to Rex.

"I'm getting fired up!"

Rex knew immediately what was about to happen as he saw Jack's retreating form going down. He then look back at Izuku as he was now just sitting back down on the bench and just talking in general. ' _If the old man is getting all fired up just because of Izuku, then…'_ Rex blew a cloud of smoke from his mouth as he finished his thoughts. ' _Things are really going to get harder for Izuku as of today. Although, I doubt that Izuku will give up just because of some upgrade_ _to_ _his training regiment. After all…'_

' _I believe in him. That and the fact if he goes rogue, we'll have to kill him… Hopefully, it doesn't come to that.'_


	5. The UA Entrance Exam and the Aftermath

**Hey guys, how's it-?**

* **sounds of a horde coming towards me as I suddenly found myself being beaten to death. Tried calling out a halt, then things started to escalated. Afterwards, all is silent***

 **Owwwwwww... Okay, I'll admit. I deserved that.**

 ***zipped down a zipper and reveals that I was unharmed***

 **Right, it's only been about a few months or so since the last release and for that, I apologize for the sudden lack of updates. As you all already know, life sometimes always finds a way to surprise when we least expected. HOWEVER! That won't stop me from trying to upload a new chapter for this! Thank you InsertImaginativeNameHere for putting it up with me since the lack of chapters!**

 **Right, I should now mention that I will be continuing this and my other stories as best as I could. With this, I leave you with this new chapter. Thank you for taking the time for reading this story.**

 **See you guys later!**

* * *

It had been a total of ten months since Izuku was taken by Rex. Izuku had since worked at the restaurant and trained like hell under the guidance of Rex, Rose and Jack. Jack had kept his promise making Izuku strong enough to pass the entrance exam to UA and up the training regimen for him, which in turn granted Izuku some strength. Rose stayed in order to help out Izuku train, just not in the way that one would expect. However, it did help Izuku go faster than usual. Rex, however, stayed the course of his original training regimen and helped Izuku managed both his body and his reflexes.

In short, Izuku went through hell.

Yet, it helped Izuku with his confidence a bit during his training. When Izuku first arrived at the restaurant, he was a mumbling mess, always mumbling to himself and awkwardly looking around as if he did something wrong. He still retained his spirit and need for helping people, but it had increased up to ten-fold. Nowadays, whenever someone was in trouble, he'd go out of his way to save them regardless of the consequences. Once he managed to save the people that were in trouble, he'd wobbled on back with heavy injuries. Rex kinda applauded him for taking that much damage, but also scolded him for doing something like that. It was… kinda weird, to be honest.

In any case, during Izuku's training, his mind had gotten sharper than what it was before. Before, he could make off assumptions on what kind of Quirk a person may have when they use it. Now, he was able to formulate any plan that could counter whatever Quirk a person may have at their disposal.

Another thing to note was that Izuku had changed a bit in appearance. For one, Izuku would always have a lollipop in his mouth as if he was imitating Rex's smoking. Second, Izuku had small streaks of red in that usual fluffy green hair of his. Finally, Izuku had been more confident about himself and talks to his co-workers a lot. He still got a bit flustered whenever a girl talked to him, but that didn't stop him from trying.

When the entrance exam was just around the corner, the whole staff of _Love & Dance _celebrated for having him making it this far into the training and was wishing him luck on the exam. Izuku couldn't stop crying after hearing everyone's support and it took at least five minutes to calm him down before everyone could begin the party.

And then… the exam arrived.

Izuku stood in front of the gate to UA and when he looked upon his soon-to-be school, he couldn't help but be in awe at the sight. The school was massive compared to the other buildings he'd seen and it was shaped in an H.

Izuku was wearing his school uniform from middle school, but the most prominent feature about him was that his jacket was unbuttoned so normally one would see a white undershirt, but it had a red tie right down the middle of the shirt. He also had red leather gloves that had several lumps in them. Other than his red shoes, nothing much.

Izuku couldn't help but feel nervous at the sight of the school, even when he had trained in the past ten months. ' _So… this is it then. My first step into becoming a pro hero! Hopefully, my training with Rex-sensei wasn't a total waste.'_

As Izuku was nervously trying to get his nerves back together, something grasped his shoulder, making him come back to reality. When Izuku turned to see who it was, it was Rex wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans. "Hey kid. You feeling alright?"

"I-I'm fine Rex-senpai. I-It's just that, I feel a bit nervous doing this," Izuku said while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Rex gave Izuku a smile. "Yeah, I know that feeling. But you'll do fine! Besides, ever since Jack made your training regimen a bit harder, you're stronger than what you were previously, am I right?"

Izuku couldn't help but reminisce a bit a few months back. It's true that Jack did turn his life a living hell to begin with, but he couldn't complain about the results that he got during that time. "Still, he couldn't have alleviated the training a bit?"

"You should've realized what Jack was like when he's fighting. Seriously, as much as I hate the old man, I can't help but respect his determination to see things through."

"Yeah…" Both stood in silence for a minute before Izuku took a step forward.

"Well, I got to go. I'll see you back at the restaurant!"

"Yeah, I'll see you then!" Izuku waved to Rex before making his way to the building.

That is, if he didn't stumble on his footing.

' _Well, at least I acted cool!'_ Izuku was bracing for his imminent impact, but after about few seconds, he didn't feel anything at all. When Izuku opened his eyes, he could see that he was floating in mid-air. Izuku was confused by what just happened and was flailing around in mid-air.

"Ah! Sorry about that!"

Izuku turned to see who said that and he saw what looks to be the prettiest girl he'd laid his eyes on. The girl had a short brown bob hair, a female school uniform and a pink scarf. "You were about to fall, so I used my Quirk on you. Sorry for doing that!" She then deactivated her Quirk once Izuku was stationed upright. "Falling down like that would be bad luck since it's the day of the exam and all!"

"A-Ah. Thank you very much." Izuku bowed in gratitude.

"No worries! Good luck on the exam!" The girl ran off before Izuku could say anything else.

Rex whistled as he made his way to Izuku's side.. "Man, if she were a bit older-!"

"Rex-sensei! Can you not!?"

Rex just laughed his ass off as he gave Izuku a pat on the shoulder. "Hehe… Sorry about that. In any case, good luck on the exam!" He then parted ways with Izuku, giving him one last wave before disappearing at a distance. Izuku turned back around to look at the building that will soon be his school.

The school that will be his first step into becoming a hero.

" _Oi, Deku."_

There was something familiar about that voice. Something that had struck fear into his very soul since childhood. Something that had beaten him down, belittled him, bruised him until he was blackened all over. Something that had broken him and had since abandoned him, left him to rot.

However, that's not the case this time.

When that voice called out to Izuku, he didn't feel fear like he used to. Instead, he felt anger swell within him and a bit of pride. Izuku turned around to see Katsuki Bakugou in his school uniform. "Hey Kacchan. Fancy meeting you here."

"Move your ass out of the way Deku."

"Ah, come on Kacchan! Don't you want to know what I've been doing for the past ten months?" Izuku's answer to that question was only a glare, but that didn't deter him one bit as he slung his shoulder over Katsuki's, "Aren't you at least _interested_ what I did?"

Katsuki slapped his arm away and glared at him. "Shut the fuck up. Why should I care about you _Deku_? You're useless, just like you have always been."

What Katsuki was expecting was Izuku ducking his head in fear as usual. What he got was Izuku laughing Katsuki's insult like it was nothing. "Ha… I never got a laugh like that in three months. Feels good to laugh…" Izuku gave out a few chuckles before addressing back to Katsuki, "Well, think what you will. I wish you luck on the entrance exam…" Izuku walked past Katsuki, but not before saying one last piece to him.

"But this time, I'm going to win."

Katsuki flashed an angry expression and his hands started to emit small explosions. He wanted to show him, _needed_ to let Izuku know how useless and worthless he is without a Quirk, but he restrained himself. Knowing the entrance exam to UA, it would serve as a purpose to Deku to show him the reality of the world.

With that in mind, he walked to the entrance to the exam.

* * *

 **Meanwhile, at the Love & Dance Restaurant**

"Is the surveillance all set?"

"Yes sir. We've just established contact with the cameras at UA."

"Anyone noticed the interference?"

"Psh! If anything, they'll only notice a minor glitch in the system! Don't worry about it!"

"If you're sure…"

After Rex had sent Izuku to take the entrance exam, he went back to the restaurant and let everyone know that the entrance exam was about to start. Everyone wanted to see how he'll do in the exam, so they closed down the restaurant early for the day and the employees worked on establishing connection to the cameras of UA. They ran into some complications, but they were able to hack into it in no time. Most of the employees that didn't interact with Izuku were curious about him and were a bit excited to see what he'll do. Others were mostly excited to see the new robots in use for this year's exam.

Once the preparations were complete, everyone moved over to the dining area, where they had a big screen in the middle. Rex was sitting right in front of the screen with a bowl of popcorn in hand, Rose was at his right sharpening her nails and Jack was at Rex's left where, as usual, was drinking a bottle of beer he'd found in the bar. After Jack had downed the beer, he turned to Rex. "So, how do you think Izuku will do on the exam? I'd imagine that he'll do well in the written portion, but I'm more curious about the practical exam."

"Yeah, I hear ya old man. I've heard the UA is using one of those gigantic robots for their exam this year. With the way we've trained Izuku, I'd say about… a fifty percent chance he'll at least put a dent in it."

"Pfft! Fifty!? I didn't train him to fail with a percentage like that! I'd say a hundred percent and that's that!"

Anyone within hearing distance had a massive sweatdrop forming on their forehead. Rose, on the other hand, was busy flirting with another man close to her while the man was looking rather uncomfortable with her flirting. "Uh, boss? Are you sure Izuku can handle _that_?" One of the employees behind Jack said, "I mean, I know you have a lot of confidence for the guy, but with something like _that_ …"

Jack took a swig from the bottle before setting it down on a table. "While I do share some concerns with you guys, remember one thing about us Mercenaries and one thing only…either we finish the job or die trying." Everybody knew what he meant by that and decided that it might be best to see how things go from here.

Jack took a seat at a nearby table and watched the screen. While Jack was confident that Izuku will pass the exam with flying colors, he couldn't help but think about what everyone was saying. In the past, the UA entrance exams had changed the way how each examinees would take the entrance exam. True to their word, only about 75% of those examiness have passed. There were some cases where some Quirkless had taken them in the past, but couldn't do anything since they didn't have a Quirk. Nowadays, almost everyone had a Quirk whenever anyone tries the entrance exam.

Izuku knew this and despite everything, he went and applied for the entrance exam.

While Jack scans the screen for Izuku, his eyes manage to land on a tuft of green familiar hair in the crowd. "Everyone! Our guest of honor has arrived!" Everyone looked at the screen to see Izuku walking in the crowd and promptly hushed up. Jack had a proud smile on his face as he watched the boy that he'd trained over the past ten months.

Rose looked at Izuku with a lustful look on her face as she watched him on the screen. However, she couldn't help but feel a bit of amusement by his innocent look.

Rex looked at the boy that they've helped train in the last ten months. He'd gotten to know the boy quite well and during that time, it kinda made him feel like he was the father of Izuku. From the moment that he made Izuku an employee, he felt that he was obligated to help Izuku reached his dream. As soon as he saw Izuku walked out towards the testing field, he couldn't hold in a wide grin off of his face.

As for Jack, he's just glad that there's someone new that he could spar with. Everyone else, he already knew by the amount of times he spared against. But one question was on everyone's mind as they watched the stream…

How would Izuku do on the entrance exam?

* * *

 **Back over at Izuku's designated Battle Center**

Everywhere Izuku looked, there were people that had impressive Quirks. Some had Quirks that had altered some parts of their bodies, others had gadgets that were accepted as they were needed for their Quirks. Izuku patted himself down as he briefly went through his inventory.

Currently, he was carrying brass knuckles that he got from Jack, saying that he'd need the extra power, a dagger from Rose saying to go for the weak points and lastly, some metal protection for his red shoes from Rex. He especially paid close attention to Rex's advice, saying that he'd need to be quick on his feet, don't let the enemy catch him off guard and if everything goes to shit, go all out. .

When the staff asked Izuku as to why he needed all that, he just told them that he needed them as they go with his Quirk. Obviously that was a lie, but thankfully, they didn't question it any further and allowed the boy to take them with him. It was times like these that Izuku was grateful that Quirks were an excuse that he could use to get away with it.

At least until they found out that he was actually Quirkless… Eh, he'd cross that bridge when he got there.

After about a bus ride towards their designated test location, Izuku couldn't help but feel anxious with every step he took closer towards the testing area. Ten months of training was all the time that he could train for the exam and even he didn't know if that was enough. But with Rex, Rose and Jack's careful (read: brutal) guidance, he felt that he could do it. All he needed to do was to earn enough points and he'll be enrolled in one of the highest prestige schools ever!

Yet as he was thinking back on his training days, Izuku's mind wandered back a bit about a month ago...

 **000**

 _It was like any other day at the Love & Dance restaurant. They weren't getting a lunch rush like they were a few days back, but it was peaceful enough that they didn't need too many employees. Sano was off at the reception desk filing away some papers and Kozato was off serving the dishes to the customers. Izuku had just finished the last batch of dishes and walked over to the break room which was two floors upstairs._

 _The break room was nothing special like the main dining hall. It held two vending machines, one filled with drinks and the other filled with snacks. There was a counter off to the side of the room with some cupboards and drawers, a sink off towards the side and a coffee machine. There were also two couches and a coffee table centered right in the center. Izuku went over to the snack vending machine, grabbed a snack and sat down onto the couch._

 _Izuku was grateful to the people that had taken him in and trained him for the entrance exam. However, in the back of his mind, he knew that even with all of this training, he was still Quirkless. The UA entrance exam was designed for people that have Quirks to show off to the staff of UA and hopefully pass entrance exam. Izuku felt a bit sad by this thought and how he'd basically wasted everyone's time on him. They spent so much time and effort on training him, so that he could could pass the entrance exam and show the world that not everyone needed a Quirk to be a hero. Even Rex proved it to him when they first meet!_

 _Izuku felt like he was a burden to everyone and that if he were to fail the entrance exam, he would be reminded how useless he really was._

 _A sudden noise rang out in the break room and Izuku looked up to see Rex entering. Upon entering Rex saw Izuku sitting on the couch, "Hey Izuku. Busy day huh?"_

" _N-Not really. It's been a slow day to me."_

 _Rex took a seat right besides Izuku and took out a_ _carton_ _filled with cigarettes. Rex looked at Izuku as if he was asking for permission and Izuku nodded. Both didn't say anything to each other for awhile. Izuku looked at Rex smoking the cancer stick. He felt immense gratitude towards the red head ever since the slime villain incident. He proved time and time again that no one needed a Quirk to save someone in need of saving._

 _Rex showed him what it means to be a true hero._

" _Say_ _,_ _Izuku?" Rex suddenly said, startling Izuku from his thoughts. "You doing alright? You look like as if you saw a ghost."_

" _Ah, well, that is," Izuku was stumbling his words before he spoke properly. "It's the UA entrance exam. I'm… To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if I can pass it or not?"_

" _Oh? And what makes you say that?"_

 _Izuku fidgeted in his seat a bit, "W-Well, the UA entrance exam is known for having a 75% chance of being accepting and it's most likely that the staff of UA would be looking at people with flashy Quirk. I… I don't even have one and yet, everyone here has spent so much time and effort on me that… I'm afraid of failing the exam and betraying everyone's expectation on me. I…"_

 _Rex didn't say anything and opted to smoke the cigarette away. Izuku sat there, waiting for… something to happen. About few minutes went by and Rex put out his cigarette onto the ashtray on the center of the table. "Let me tell you something here Izuku." Izuku stood up straight at the sound of Rex's voice. "When I was your age, I took the UA entrance exam as well."_

 _Rex could've sworn that he heard something crack when Izuku turned to look at him. "Ehhhhh!? You took the exam as well!?"_

" _Yeah. Despite me not having a Quirk, I wanted to take it. To show the society-if not the world-that you don't need a Quirk to become a hero. As I've told you before, there's two portions of the entrance exam. The practical and the written one. I managed to pass the written one, the practical one, on the other hand… I couldn't even get a single point."_

" _W-What? But how? You were so strong when you faced off against that slime villain!"_

" _I know that, but I only got lucky that time because of the fire around me. If it weren't for that… Anyways, I didn't get any points from that because everywhere I go, there's always people with different Quirks getting to the points first. I wasn't fast enough nor was I strong enough to get those points. After everything was said and done, I ended up having nothing. Everyone around me looked at me like they were mocking me and I could see that some of them were laughing silently at me." Rex looked a bit shaken by this memory as he clenched and unclenched his fist, "After about a week, I got a letter from UA, stating the very obvious that I didn't pass the entrance exam and they thanked me for trying._

" _I was pissed at myself and at the system that was UA. What those people were looking for were people that had flashy and powerful Quirks to show off to society. I fucking worked my ass off to show to them that you didn't need a Quirk to be a hero, and yet, they fucking throw me away like the trash they proclaimed the Quirkless to be… Fuck." As he was ranting a bit, Rex felt something stinging in his eyes and wiped his eyes from the wetness. "As for why I was pissed at myself, I was pissed because I was arrogant, thinking that it would be a cakewalk for me to pass. It cost me my way into UA and everyone that had saw me mocked me for taking the exam. I learned the hard way that the world we live in today is unequal."_

 _Izuku knew what Rex was talking about and opted to look down at the table. Izuku could sympathize with Rex as he went through something similar to that, only with more bruises and scars on his body than Rex. "And then..." Rex spoke after a few minutes of silence, "I meet you."_

" _M-Me? You mean…?"_

" _Yeah. When you went out there to save that kid from the slime villain, something within me just… popped. My dream of showing the world that anyone can be a hero… you were the one that had managed to revive that dream of mine back to life. And so, I want to thank you for that." Rex finished it off with a bow._

 _Izuku couldn't believe what Rex had told him. Him, a person that had no Quirk and was considered useless in today's society, one that had no talent at all, one that was considered weak. One who had nothing. Izuku felt an unknown feeling that was swelling in his chest as he placed his hand over his chest. It was a pleasant tingle that he was feeling, almost as if… he was proud of what he did._

" _Also, another thing," Rex's voice suddenly startled Izuku out of his thoughts. "I just wanted you to know that it doesn't matter what other people think about you. It doesn't matter whether you're Quirkless or not, anyone can become a hero. All they need to do is try. What you're doing right now… it's going to bring people hope." Rex patted Izuku's head with a smile and walked out of the room with another cigarette._

 **000**

Izuku didn't know the meaning behind those words, but didn't question at the time since the exam was around the corner, but now that he thought about it, maybe-

Izuku accidentally bumped into someone while he was deep in thought and immediately apologized for it. What he didn't expect was for that someone to laugh it off. "It's no problem! Say, how do you feel right now? Nervous, huh?"

Izuku looked confused. "Um, yeah? Wouldn't anyone be?"

"No, that's not what I meant!" The person looked at Izuku and Izuku reflexively took a step back. He saw the person to be almost the same height as him, only a bit taller, had wild blond hair, is wearing gray short shirt and blue training pants. "You don't have a Quirk, do you?"

Izuku was shocked to hear that someone else knows about his Quirkless status other than the employees back at the restaurant. "H-How did you know!?"

The person laughed before calming himself down. "It's not that hard. You have those weapons on you that other might suggest that you need those for your Quirks. On the other hand, it could also suggest that you're Quirkless. I mean, look around." The person spread his hands wide, "Do you see anyone else wearing something like that?" It was true. Izuku looked around to see that no one was had something that acted like a catalyst for their Quirk. In fact, everyone was looking at him like he wanted to murder someone with the two weapons he had on hand. Izuku looked down in shame as his secret was out. What would the person think of him now? What would he say about him? Would he look down on him like the Quirkless nobody that he was?

"Ah well, It doesn't matter to me anyways. Do your best. I'll be waiting for you at UA."

Izuku immediately looked up to the person to see him walking off towards another direction. He then saw him lift his right arm and clenched his fist before disappearing into the crowd. Izuku didn't know the guy, but he knew that he was supporting him regardless of being Quirkless. That particular thought made him grin as he slapped his face and mentally prepared himself for the exam.

"ALRIGHT, START!"

* * *

From the restaurant, everyone could see that Present Mic had just declared the start of the exam and everyone was confused by this turn of events. It was typical that everyone that had taken this would expect some sort of countdown. In the real world, no one would give you the time to prepare yourself. It was either kill or be killed. 'Tis was the reality that UA presented to them. Only a few managed to head into the fake city. The person that Izuku was just talking to before and Izuku himself.

"Go for it Izuku!"

"Show them the might of the Mercenaries!"

"Kick some ass!"

The employees were cheering on for Izuku as he ran into the city looking for points. The screen showed Izuku running into an alley to find a 2-pointer robot heading his direction. The robot then made a move to pound Izuku into the ground until Izuku rolled out of the way and kicked the robot in the leg. The robot wobbled a bit before tumbling down to the ground with Izuku giving it a swift kick to the head, destroying it in the process.

"Huh, a swift end. I would've prefer that one to at least last longer." Jack took a swig of his twentieth beer. Behind Jack was a pile of empty bottles of beer that he had previous drank.

"Come now dear. You should know that if he took any longer than a minute, the exam will be over." Rose said to Jack, undisturbed by the amount of beer he'd drank.

"Feh!" And with that, Jack went back to watching the video.

The employees that worked at the restaurant for a long time knew of Jack's tendency of wanting to fight. There was even the time where Jack had gathered all of the able bodied people he could find and forced them to spar with him. That alone had sent at least five people to the hospital for broken bones and bruises on them. It was a nightmare for them, but for Jack, it was enough to keep him satisfied.

One employee tapped Rex's shoulder as he was watching the screen. "Um, Boss? Just in case if Jack boss were to say… have us all go up to the roof for a spar, what's the protocol for not getting our ass whooped?"

Rex took a long drag of his smoking stick before addressing to the employee behind him. "Do you seriously expect to come out of the old man's sparring alive?"

"No, but I do feel better if we had something to keep Jack boss from tearing us a new hole."

"Hm, fair point. But unfortunately for you and possibly everyone here, there's no protocol for something like that. There is however, one thing that you can keep in mind though."

"I'm pretty sure what you're about to say isn't good… but go ahead. Tell me what it is."

Rex took in another drag before responding with a deadpan expression. "Tuck in and kiss your ass goodbye."

The employee from behind just sighed and walked back to where he came from and muttered, 'Should've expected that one.', before moving out of Rex's sight. Rex turned his attention back just in time to see Izuku facing against another robot, this time a one-point robot. Izuku was about to make a move until a laser beam came out of nowhere. Confused by this turn of events, Izuku looked around to find out who did that until they found a person that was flamboyantly showing off.

The guy had smooth blond hair, training clothes and some kind of device strapped around his stomach. He was saying something, but for some reason, the audio wasn't picking it up. "Hey! What happened to the audio?"

"Sorry about that boss!" Another employee addressed Rex, "We were only able to pick up the video of the cameras. Anything else and UA would've noticed they're being hacked. This was the best that we could do."

Seeing that line of reason, he shrugged and turned back to the screen again.

* * *

 **Observation Room**

Somewhere in a dark room, there was a large screen displaying all of the applicants fighting against the many robots of the exam. In that room housed the numerous staffs of Pro-heroes that were watching them with a keen eye. They were in charged in seeing the many applicant's talents and if they had what it takes to be a hero.

"It would appear that this years applicants looks promising." A hero whispering to his partner that was sitting next to him.

"Quite so. However, one should be aware that we're not only judging them on their Quirks, but rather the qualities of a hero." The partner responded.

"Hm, yes. Those are important."

"...You forgotten them, haven't you?"

"Yes, I did."

"Hooooboy… Look, as you may have already know, a hero must be strong, fast and courageous enough to step into the line of fire. Not only that, they need to be smart as to when they can step in. One wrong move and everything will go down in the matter of seconds."

"Right… I knew that."

"Even so," Another voice suddenly came from behind startling the two. They turned back to see the principal who was a small… thing… creature? wearing a tuxedo. The only notable feature on it was a scar that run through the left ear towards a quarter way into his left cheek and that smile it was wearing. "While this years applicants do look promising, they have yet to show their true nature when face against an adversary that may prove too much for them."

The hero and partner looked at each other and the hero asked, "So, that would mean…?"

"Yes," The figured flipped open a cover on a panel and pressed the button. "It's time see who really gets to be a hero."

* * *

 **Back at the Practical Center**

' _Crap! I've only managed to get 3 points! This isn't good!'_ Izuku frantically looked around to find some points, but everywhere he looked, he could only see the aftermath of the many skirmishes. The only robot that Izuku was able to destroy was that three-point robot. It was the only robot that he'd encounter before everyone else got over their shocked state and rushed in.

Not one robot was left after that.

Izuku reached the center to see some other applicants fighting off the robots and quickly finishing them off and continuing on. _'No no no! I… I can't let this come to an end! There-There has to be something for me to get! Something, anything!'_

Suddenly, multiple explosions erupted from somewhere and everyone was wondering what the hell was that. One person looked up and yelled out and when everyone looked to where that person was pointing at, they freezed up.

In front of them… was the giant zero-pointer robot.

Something flashed in Izuku's mind while he stared at the giant robot.

 **000**

" _The zero-pointer robot is something that you kids would want to avoid and focus on those first three! Think of it as something that you'll want to avoid!"_

 **000**

' _Present Mic didn't say anything about the zero-pointer being this big!'_ The giant's fist then came crashing down onto the street in front of them, making Izuku lose his balance and fall on his butt. Everyone was screaming as they tried to get away from the big threat. As they were running, one peculiar applicant looked at Izuku and ran away at full speed.

"Only less than two minutes remaining!" Present Mic's voiced across the city.

"Only two minutes left?!" Izuku, still draught with fear, tried to crawl away from the zero-pointer. "I can't faced that! I need to get out of here! I need to find more points! Otherwise… Otherwise-!"

' _The training that everyone helped me with will go to waste!'_

"Ouch!"

Izuku stopped crawling as soon as he heard it and looked back to the girl that he had talked to before the exam had started. The girl was trapped under some rubble and looked like she was about to throw-up. The robot was just close enough for it to run her over and potentially harm her.

The answer was obvious to him, and yet…

"Hey, you need any help?"

Startled by the voice, he, once again, turned around and saw the guy that he spoke to before crouching to his eye level. What was more interesting was that there was no look of fear anywhere. "Y-You were-!"

The person just smiled and helped Izuku back onto his feet. "You want to save that girl, right?"

"W-What?! I-I mean…"

"Heh, don't worry about it. Listen, I'll distract the robot, you get that girl out of here. Sound good?"

"B-but what can you do against something that big!?"

The person didn't answer immediately and opted to crack his knuckles. As he did, sparks suddenly came to life and flared around the person. He looked back to Izuku and gave him a wide grin. "Does this answer your question?" He didn't let Izuku get the chance to speak again as he turned his attention back to the zero-pointer. "HEY, BIG METAL FREAK! TRY THIS ON FOR SIZE!" He gathered the sparks around him and it formed into an orb that fits the size of his hands.

"Something of a homage to an anime I've watched before coming here! **ZAKERUGA!** "

He thrust his palm at the zero-pointer and a beam came out. The robot had made to punch them into the ground and collided with the beam. The zero-pointer pushed hard on the beam, but the person pushed even more into the attack and yelled out. "Go kid! I don't know how long I can hold this!"

"Uh, right!" Izuku quickly ran over to the girl and began to move the rubble off of her. Once the rubble was out, Izuku pulled her away from the robot and shoulder-carried her out. "D-Don't worry! We'll get out of here!" The girl didn't respond, mostly likely trying to keep the contents of her stomach from coming out, but nevertheless is immensely grateful for the rescue. In an attempt to calm her down, Izuku gave her a shaky smile. "F-F-Fear not! Why?! B-Because I'm here!"

 _POW! "Gah!"_

Something whizzed by the two and caused an explosion of smoke in front of them. Once the smoke had cleared, Izuku and the girl could see that it was the person that had tried to fight against the giant robot. Dread filled the two as they slowly looked behind them to see the robot looming over them threatening. Adrenaline filled Izuku as he tried to move as fast as he could away from the robot. However, what could he do? The robot was freaking huge! He couldn't make any progress away from the robot at all! He looked back on at the robot to see it rear its fist once more and plunged it towards them. He screamed in fear as he watched the attack get closer and closer.

He braced for impact as he knew that he couldn't do anything to stop it

" _Get the hell away from them!"_

Spark's flied past as the person came in between Izuku and the fist. He then made a fist and slammed it against the robot's and electricity made its appearance once again. "Y-You again?! Wait, how did you get out of that unscathed!?"

The person chuckled. "How about instead of answering that question, I show you what I'm made of?!" The person then managed to push the robot away from them and jumped as high as he could go. Izuku and the girl looked up in shock as he jumped high. Once the person managed to get up to the robot's eye level, he yelled.

" _I'M… KIDOU "KID" UZUMI! I'M GOING TO BECOME THE GREATEST HERO THAT THE WORLD HAS YET TO SEE! NO MATTER WHO THEY ARE, NO MATTER THEIR PAST, I'LL SAVE EVERYONE!"_

From the ground, a ball of electricity was slowly being formed. Seconds later, the ball of electricity grew bigger and bigger until it was about the same size of the zero-pointer robot.

" _THIS IS MY RESOLVE! THE RESOLVE OF A TRUE HERO!_ _ **BAAAAAAOOOOOOUUUUU ZAAAAKERUUUUUGAAAAAAAAAAA!**_ _"_

The electric ball flew towards the robot and as it flew, it morphed into something big, something that no has ever seen before…

It formed into a dragon.

" _GOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHH!"_

The dragon opened its mouth as to eat the robot. Naturally, the robot went to punch it, but the dragon chomped its arm off. The robot didn't deter from its original goal and made throw another punch at the dragon, but instead of biting down its arm, it soared above the robot. The robot looked up to see the dragon charging a beam in its mouth. It moved to block it, but it couldn't move for some reason.

Looking down on the robot's body, it was wrapped by the dragon's body.

" _GOOOOOOHHHHH!"_

The dragon fired its beam and the robot was no more.

* * *

The restaurant was silent. Absolutely silent. The employees had their jaws dropped to the ground, Rex's cigarette fell on top of the table, Rose had her eye's shadowed by her bangs and Jack… is asleep on the ground. Not a big surprise from him, but anyways.

Kozato had just swung by for work and came in just in time to see the end. He was shocked, to say the least, when he saw the exam was almost over. Apparently, he was out taking care of some personal business and was disappointed. He was really looking forward to see how Izuku did. Sano, on the other hand, saw everything and seeing Kozato's expression kinda made it worth it. Now she had something to tease him and give him payback for last week.

Finally, one of the employees had gotten over their shocked state and spoke up. "So… we can all agree one thing and that was whatever happened just then…"

"...WAS AWESOME!"

"Hell yeah!"

Bursts of cheers filled the once silenced room as they cheered in excitement. Not only did Izuku had tried to save the girl from the robot, he'd also managed to pull it off using everything they've taught him. When Kid first fought against that robot, Izuku sought for cover in one of the alley. However, he didn't get far when the robot locked its eyes onto Izuku once again. When Kid came in between them, Izuku used that chance to rip a part of his shirt to makeshift bandage on the girl's leg. Once that's done, they immediately vacated the area leaving Kid with the robot.

The exam ended after Kid had managed to land the final blow against the robot and everyone that wasn't severely injured came rushing towards the site. Right up to that point, the cameras shut themselves down, thus effectively ending the stream.

Although…

"Hmmm, I didn't expect Kid of all people to actually take the exam." Rex pondered to himself.

"Mm, same here. Kid would never take the exam, knowing well that he could be a hero without a license." Having sharpen senses, Rose responded.

"Still, that doesn't explain why he took the exam in the first place."

Rose didn't say anything at first, but then she had this look of realization. "Do you think… that it has to do with that event from five years ago?"

"...I hope not. Otherwise, we're gonna have a problem on our hands."

"You mean the kind where we're in knee deep shit?"

"Yup… Still," Rex took another cigarette out of the box from his breast pocket and lit it up. Afterwards, he smiled. "Let's just be happy that Izuku got through the practical exam alive and well, yeah?'

Rose smiled in kind and the two walked back upstairs to prepare to open the restaurant once again… As soon as they moved Jack out of the way first.

* * *

 **Few Hours later**

With the written exam finished up and the entrance exam all done, Izuku made his way back to home as he was tired from all the excitement. However, when the practical exam was done, He was approached again by Kid as he wanted to talk to him, but he couldn't on the account that Recovery Girl wanted to take a look at him. With this window of opportunity, Izuku managed to get away undetected. Afterwards, Izuku called the restaurant, telling them that he'll be there, but Rex came up on the phone and told him to take the day off. After all, he did survive from being squashed by a giant robot, he needs all the rest he can get! Reluctantly, Izuku accepted the day off and started to head home.

Nothing eventful happened during the walk back home, so Izuku thought nothing but of the Quirks he'd seen in the exam-

"Hey Izuku!"

-Only to find that Kid was standing in front of his door to his home. "Huh?! Kidou-san?! W-What are you doing here?!"

Kid pushed himself off the wall and walked towards Izuku with his hands in his pockets. Looking closely at Kid, Izuku could see that he was wearing a short-sleeved shirt with the words 'CAN'T STOP THE THUNDER!' printed at the center of his dim yellow shirt, blue jeans, various of wrist accessories and a baseball hat. "I came by to visit you! I wanted to know more about the boy from the slime villain!"

"O-Oh.." It's only been about ten months since that incident and there were still some people that know about the incident? Izuku figured that Kid wanted to know if he had a Quirk or not. If he'd knew already that he was Quirkless, then why be with him? Why not someone else? Why would Kid be interested in him at all if he was a Quirkless, useless, nobody? "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not the one you think I am."

Kid tilted his head, "Eh? You mean you weren't the guy that ran in without a Quirk?"

"It's not that! It's just… why are you really here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I'm Quirkless, like the minority of the population! Rex, my teacher, taught me about how society worked and that how the Quirkless were treated like trash! So why would you be interested in me?! What makes me so special than the rest!?"

Kid didn't say anything for a few minutes and Izuku started to regret what he said to him. "...Well, yeah." Kid said after a few tense minutes, "I know that society only views people with Quirks. Hell, I even know that during the entrance exam, everyone was only looking at me. But I don't care about that." Kid looked Izuku dead in the eye. "I only care about saving those that need saving."

"Th-That doesn't answer my question! Why be interested in me though?!"

"Because you saved that girl." Izuku jolted, but Kid continued on, "You saved her when no one did. Sure, there might've been some people that saw her stuck under some rubble, but they were too scared to help her. You, on the other hand, went in and saved her despite the danger that was presented in front of you. Even when you could've lost your life, you went in anyway." Kid gave Izuku a wide grin showing off his teeth to him. "Heh, it's like what Rex said to you…"

" _YOU WILL BECOME A TRUE HERO."_

Kid crossed his arms behind his head still showing his smile, "But then again, you're already one, aren't ya?"

Izuku was stunned, to say the least. Having literally just meet a few minutes ago, Kid told him that he could be a hero and actually meant it. Rex, Rose, Jack, Kozato, Sano and those back at the restaurant all knew what Izuku is capable of and told him very much that he could become one, but never before had he'd been told he could be a hero straight of the bat! It was crazy!

Still, that does beg the question… "Um, how do you know about what Rex-sensei said to me?"

"Hm? Oh, Rex told me all about you."

"EEEEHHHHH!? Y-Y-Y-Y-You know R-R-R-Rex-sensei!?"

"Hahahaha! And you even called him senpai!? Oh man, no wonder why Rex picked you! You're too funny!" Kid laughed his ass off and Izuku could only in disbelief. Still, the way that he laughed wasn't that of any malice. It felt like he was really happy about something. Not sure what, but he was happy nonetheless.

After that, Kid managed to stop his laughing fit and asked Izuku if he could come in since he was here and all. Izuku felt a bit embarrassed and turned to open the door into their home. Hearing the door open from the inside, Inko walked over to the door to see Izuku and another person she'd never seen before. Inko cried out in joy seeing Izuku making a new friend. Izuku felt embarrassed, but Kid laughed as well, saying that she was funny as well. After Inko calmed herself down, she invited Kid to stay for dinner and Kid gladly accepted.

Kid told the two Midoriya stories of Rex and what he did in the past and they all laughed at the jokes. Izuku reminisce in the past of where Bakugou and Izuku would always tell each other about how All Might is awesome and their dreams about becoming a hero. That was before Bakugou turned into a bully and made his life a living hell. Izuku shook the memory away and focused on what's in front of him and what he has right now.

Meeting with Rex, Rose, Jack, Kozato, Sano, Kid, everyone at the restaurant…

It made him glad that he meet with them all.


	6. How Mercenaries and Results go together

**Welcome back to another chapter! Now, at the time, I didn't know if I should have Izuku pass the entrance exam or not. As many of you already know, he's been trained with the Mercenaries for about ten months and I was thinking that I should put him on the path as a Vigilante. But, something came to mind as to where I can put Izuku in. And this chapter here will show you where I put him! In any case, thank you for taking the time to reading this story!**

* * *

It's safe to say that Izuku was a bundle of mess after the exam, even at the restaurant. And by that, he was _waaayyy_ more nervous when he was first hired.

A week had passed since the UA entrance exam and Izuku felt more nervous with each day that's passed. While he had no doubt that he'd passed the written portion of the exam, he didn't how well he didn't during the practical exam. It even showed during his shift at the restaurant. Rex would often tell him to take a break each time he could see the jittering in his movement. Rose would check up on him from time to time during his shift and would pat him on the head to calm him down. Jack would up his training a bit as to get rid of the nervous energy in him.

The employees of the restaurant had also helped out in an attempt to calm him down. Kozato would tell stories about some random topic, Sano would take him for a walk to cool his nerves, etc, etc. Izuku was grateful to everyone that they would go out of their way to help him, but he still couldn't help feeling nervous.

Then, the letter finally came.

* * *

 **Love & Dance Restaurant Entrance**

Prior to receiving the letter from UA, Rex told Izuku to come to the restaurant if they got the letter. As Izuku was about to get ready, Inko wanted to come along as to thank the man who helped him along the way. So, the two made their way to the restaurant in no time.

When they arrived at the restaurant, Rose was standing at the entrance with her normal clothing and her parasol in hand. Rose saw them arrived and waved to them. "Hey Izuku-chan! You're here early!"

"R-Rose-san! Hello!" Izuku bowed along with Inko.

Rose gave Izuku a smile before moving her attention to the older woman besides him. "Who's this you brought along with you?"

"O-Oh! Rose-san, this is my mother-"

"-Inko Midoriya. It's nice to meet the person that has helped my son." Inko bowed to her.

"A-Ah. It's nice to meet you as well." Rose awkwardly bowed back. Rose had heard of Inko for awhile as Izuku would often talk about her. She didn't get the chance to meet with her personally, but based on the talk with Izuku, it sounded like Inko was a good woman that tried to take care of her only son. It was admirable for a single mother to take care of her son while the father was gone. "Izuku talks about you often and I was curious to see if what he was talking about was right."

"Oh? What has Izuku been saying about me?"

Rose could see Izku sweating bullets and it made her giggle a little. "Izuku would always talk about his mother being a worrywart and that he could never find the time for some privacy." Inko slowly turned to look at Izuku to give him the _look_ , but Izuku looked away from her ashamed. "But he never does complain about it as he knew she was worried about him." _That_ managed to get a reaction out of Inko as she was blushing like crazy. Izuku blushed as well and soon, both of them were a blushing mess. Rose giggled at the sight of them trying to form a coherent sentence. _'Like mother like son, huh?'_ Rose smiled at the sight as this reminded her of her own family.

Rose decided that there would be a time later to remember the past. "Right, we'll get to know each other later. For now, Izuku. Do you have the letter with you?"

Izuku managed to calm himself down and took the letter from his pocket. "I have it here Rose-san. Though, why do I have to bring it here? Wouldn't it be better if I tell you after?"

"Yes, but many of the employees here are people that had tried to take the UA entrance exam and failed. Very few were able to pass, but later were expelled."

"E-Expelled!?"

"UA has high expectation for those that were accepted. We had to learn that the hard way." Rose bent down on her knees as she gave Izuku a stern gaze. "Listen to me Izuku. If you get accepted into UA, you have to keep up your training. The exam was only the entryway, but the real deal starts from here when you get accepted. Keep training and become the hero that you desire, okay?"

Izuku looked at Rose dead in the eye after that. Izuku then smiled as he balled his hand into a fist. "Right! I'll do my best!"

With that, Rose nodded and stood back up. "Then, how about we get in? The guys are just dying to know about that letter. And maybe you can introduce your mother to your friends."

"Mm! I'd like that." Inko said with a smile. She went on ahead with Rose and the two of them talked along the way. Izuku just hoped that whatever it was they are talking about, it doesn't end up being embarrassing.

* * *

"So that's Izuku's mom huh?"

"She looks good. And I do mean _good_."

"Dude, she's Izuku's mom. She's gotta have a husband if Izuku's here."

"Yeah I know that! I'm just saying that she looks good is all!"

"You're unbelievable, you know that?"

The interior of the restaurant is packed to the brim as word got out that the letter from UA. Everyone one of them were excited to see someone get a letter from the prestige high school that only accepts the best of the best. Only a few knew what to expect from the letter and hoped that Izuku would be accepted. The rest never had anyone apply to UA before so this was a big deal to them.

When the trio entered the restaurant, they were greeted by Rex who waved them over. Inko introduced herself to Rex and Rex kissed her on the hand. Inko blushed furiously at that and Izuku had to tell him that she was married.

"Still, it is a man's duty to make sure that the women are happy." Izuku only sighed and Inko looked like a tomato with the way her face is. Then… there was Jack.

Her first impression of him was that he was huge. _Really_ huge. To top it off, he had this aura that just looks like he was the bad guy of a bad film. But that fear was wiped away when Jack smiled at her. "Your son is a remarkable boy. I'm amazed that so few people like him exist."

It made Inko blush and she thanked him for the compliment. Izuku looked at his mother to see her smiling and happy. In the past, his mother was wracked with sadness and didn't smile as often as she did before. What with his father leaving them both and with the bills racking up, it was hard for her to smile like there was no problem. Since the day that Izuku was hired by Rex, Inko was extremely happy that he was had found a job where he could potentially find some friends. Add in the fact that it was at the place where Inko and his father got together and she was one happy customer.

"Oh? Hey Izuku!" Izuku turned to find Kid walking towards him, envelope in hand. "You also got the letter from UA, right? Ready for the big reveal?"

"Y-Yeah! To be honest though, I'm a little nervous."

"Hah! Nervous?" Rex added in from somewhere, "You couldn't stop moving from place to place and even when I gave you a plate to hand to the customers, the food would be jittering all over the place!"

"...It's not that bad?"

"You're still getting your pay docked!"

Izuku sighed and Kid just laughed. When the two finally managed to calm down and basically everyone in the restaurant clammed up, Rex motioned them over to an empty table. With each step that Izuku took, he felt that nervous energy coming back to him tenfold. Kid noticed this and patted him on the shoulder. "Relax. We won't know unless we open this letter here. And even if we don't get accepted, I'll be here with you, along with everyone here."

Izuku looked at Kid and then at the employees around them. He could see them giving him a thumbs-up and a few gave out a few words of encouragement. This eased Izuku a bit as he gave a small smile. They made it to the table and Rex stood in front of both letters on the table and Izuku and Kid stood at the other side of the table.. "Before you guys open your letters, there's something I wanted to talk to you two about." Rex took a moment to think of what he wanted to say. "As you know, there has been only a select few here that had been accepted into UA and the minute that they were enrolled, they were expelled. I'm sure my mom has told you of this Izuku."

Izuku nodded. "UA has high expectation and only those that have the potential could stay."

"Yup. 'Plus Ultra' as they would say. They only want the best of the best, the one that will set to be a shining example for future generations to come. And yet… it is also one of the more harsh realities that we have to come to terms with." Rex looked at Izuku with a serious expression. "Izuku, what is a 'hero' to you?"

"A hero is one that would rescue everyone with a smile on his face," was the instant response.

"And you Kid?"

"A hero that is meant to be there for everyone, no matter what."

"Both of them are great dreams, but without the resolve and the will to carry those dreams, they mean nothing. Even if you guys get accepted into UA, work hard and give everything you got to show what you're made of!" Rex then took a cigarette and lighter from his pocket and lit one up. "Just promise us one thing." Rex blew a smoke ring from his mouth as he said the next thing. "Don't forget about us. And even if you guys don't get accepted, we'll always be there for you."

Izuku almost gave a sob at that, but settled with a wide grin on him. For all his life, Izuku only known the humility, the shaming, the bullying, the abuse, everything negative that had happened during his life. For the first time, he was shown kindness from people that didn't have to do anything, but they choose to. He wanted to keep living this moment forever. The people that had helped him train, the people that were with him the entire way…it was something that was like a dream.

Izuku wanted to keep living this dream.

"Right! Enough of the sappy stuff! Let's get to it!"

Kid grabbed his and Izuku's letter off the table and made ready to tear the letter open. Izuku mirrored the action, only with less gusto and more enthusiasm. Kid looked at Izuku and smiled. Izuku did the same as well. "Ready? 1!"

"2!"

"3!"

Both of them tore open the letter at the same time and when they did, a small disk fell out out of the letter. Upon impact, a bright flash popped up from the disk revealing a very familiar person.

" **I AM HERE AS A PROJECTION!"**

One dot…

Two dot…

Then-

"EEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!?"

If one were to be within hearing range of that, they could expect to feel like there was an earthquake happening within the restaurant itself. Izuku was the most shocked. As many know, All Might is the number one hero, just in front of Endeavor, the number two hero. All Might's known for his huge heroism, his bravery in the face of death and every single known act since the start of his career. However, there were only a one person that has a say about his flair…

" _ **THEN JUST FUCKING ACT LIKE A PROJECTION GOD DAMN IT!"**_

Namely this.

"Sheesh. That guy never does know when to act normal." Jack took a swig from his canteen and sighed in pleasure.

Izuku ignored Jack in favor of geeking out. "A-A-A-A-A-ALL MIGHT!? THE NUMBER ONE HERO!? HE'S KNOWN AS THE SYMBOL OF PEACE, ALWAYS GOING TO SAVE THE DAY WITH A SMILE ON HIS FACE! YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT HE'S ONE OF THE PRO HEROES THAT WILL BE TEACHING AT UA?!"

"Seems like it. I mean, wouldn't any pro hero would take the opportunity to teach at UA?"

Whatever Izuku wanted to say next was interrupted by All Might's laugh. **"I bet I scared the living daylights out of you! Yes, as of today, I'll be teaching at UA this year! Now about your exam results,"** Izuku gulped while Kid watched on with a curious expression now on his face. " **Young Midoriya/Uzumi, you have passed/failed the written portion of the exam. While it was part of the exam, your practical exam though… You failed/passed."** Izuku looked down at the ground as he heard those words. Kid managed to pass, no doubt thanks to his Quirk, but to hear that he'd been shot down like this… Izuku could feel a mist forming in his eyes.

Izuku felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see Kid giving him a small smile. "Don't worry Izuku. If you failed, then that means I failed as well."

Izuku reeled back in shock. "W-What?! But Kid-san! UA is one of the prestigious schools and-!"

"So what?" Izuku was stunned but Kid kept going. "UA may be the top ranked school, but what does that have to do with anything? If my friend isn't enrolled into this school, then there's no point in me going as well." Kid shot him a wide grin and a thumbs up. "After all, we're friends aren't we?"

"If only that were true…"

"Eh?"

Kid wanted to know what Izuku meant by that, but was interrupted by All Might. **"HOWEVER!"** Kid and Izuku were spooked by the loudness of All Might's voice. " **WHAT KIND OF HEROES WOULD WE BE IF WE WERE TO VALUE EACH PARTICIPANTS IN VILLAIN POINTS ONLY?! NO! HEROES ARE MEANT TO FIGHT OFF THE VILLAINS WHILE ALSO PROTECTING THOSE IN DANGER! HOW CAN REJECT ANYONE FROM BECOMING A HERO IF THEY WERE TO DO THE RIGHT THING!? HAVE A LOOK!"**

The image switched to a girl with a brown bowl haircut and a man with wild blond hair and headphones. Izuku immediately recognized that girl and the man. "Wait, that's the girl from the exam! What's she doing with Present Mic?"

The girl fidgeted a bit before asking Present Mic. "U-Um, Present Mic? Do you know a boy with the curly hair, freckles and is kinda plain-looking? Is it possible for me to give him some of my points?" The crowd _ohhhh_ ed at that display before they were shushed by Rose. "I've heard him say that he only had three points during the exam and that if he could get more than he had…"

While watching the image, Izuku had brief flashbacks to his past.

" _What the hell can a Quirkless loser like you can do?!"_

"He saved me from that robot while everyone ran."

" _There's no reason to go and put yourself in danger like that!"_

"I want to repay him in some way for saving me!"

Izuku widen his eyes in shock as he heard this girl, this unknown girl, wanting to give some of her point to him. No one ever did that for him in the past and he'd expected the same before. There was a foreign feeling that was swelling up in Izuku's chest. It felt… nice. Warm even. Present Mic patted her on the head. "Don't you worry about that one female lisenter! It'll be alright!"

All Might appeared again on the projector. **"THIS JOB, YOUNG MIDORIYA, IS WHERE ONE WOULD RISK THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE EVERYDAY IN ORDER FOR THEM TO DO THE RIGHT THING! IF WE WERE TO SAY THAT IT'S ONLY LIP SERVICE, THEN BRING IT ON! IT IS A HEROES JOB TO PUT THAT LIP SERVICE INTO ACTION! IN ADDITION TO HAVING THREE VILLAIN POINTS-!"** The image shifted again to a scoreboard showing where everyone is ranked. On the right side of the screen way close to the bottom… was Izuku's name, **"YOU HAVE SIXTY RESCUE POINTS! ALONG WITH URARAKA OCHAKO, FORTY-FIVE RESCUE POINTS! WHICH MEANS-!"** Izuku slowly backed away from the projector as he couldn't believe what he was about to hear next. All Might then held out his hand as if he wanted Izuku to take his hand. **"COME NOW… YOUNG MIDORIYA…"**

" **THIS IS YOUR HERO ACADEMIA."**

And there it was, the dam that held the tears of Izuku Midoriya, to fall. Izuku cried out in happiness and furiously tried to wipe away the tears that were on him. Kid, that had been silent during the whole ordeal went up to him and hugged him tightly. Izuku held on tight, just crying tears of happiness into Kid's arms. Kid looked up to see Inko doing the same with Rex and upon meeting Rex's eyes, both of them smiled widely.

"Welp," Jack appeared in front of them, smiling widely with his teeth showing. "You guys know what this means right?"

"Of course dear." Rose floating besides Jack, "What else could we do on this momentous occasion?"

"Right! Everyone! One two-!"

" _PAAAAAARRRRTTYYYYYYYYYY!"_

Everyone around them cheered out loud in celebration of Izuku's newly enrolled status as a UA student. One by one, everyone went off towards a different direction to set up a party.

"I'll get the booze!"

"Don't forget the food!"

"Wait, what about the poppers!?"

"Someone already went out to get them!"

"Scratch that booze! Izuku and Kid can't drink them"

"They're for Jack! Don't worry!"

" _That's even worse!"_

Izuku wiped his tears away as he watched everyone setting up some tables to sit next to each other and others going to the kitchen to prep some food. Kid felt a squeeze on his left shoulder and turned to see Kid standing next to him. Kid didn't say anything, or he didn't need to say anything, as he smiled to Izuku. Izuku nodded at that and looked back to the sight in front of him. As Izuku looked on, he could remember the times that he'd spent with them, the times where he felt love from them, where they would come to him for help, where he wasn't a useless Deku.

"Hey Kid?"

"Yeah?"

"...I'm really glad that I've met you and everyone here."

Kid opted to rub his head to that. "Yeah, me too."

And this was how the two participants/now turned friends, got into the most prestigious school in all of Japan. It didn't look like there was anything that could ruin it...

If only that were the end of the story.

" **Hey there participant!"**

Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at the still-going projection that came from Izuku's disk. It's now showing what appears to be a mouse, rat, bear thing on the projection. It was wearing a suit with six buttons all three on each side of the suit and a red tie. It also had yellow shoes to wear, which really contrasted with the formal suit. **"Who am I that just appeared on this projection? Am I a bear? A rat? Or something else? The answer-?"**

" **I'm the principal!"**

At that point, everyone had different expressions. Izuku somewhat knew who the principal of UA was, due to his extensive research on heros, but was wondering why the principal was on the projection. Inko almost had a heart attack from the surprise, Kid looked at the principal funny like he'd just heard the world's worst joke. Jack, Rose and Rex's expression were an all different matter altogether.

"Huh, so that's the infamous principal of UA."

"I'd thought it would be a cute bunny person."

"Of course you would pick something cute to be principal mom."

"Bwahaha! That's Rose for ya!"

While the conversation between the three were interesting enough, Izuku was already confused by this turn of events. Why was the principal on the projection and what did Izuku do to garner the attention of the principal? **"Now, I bet you're wondering why I, the principal, am here? Fret not, for the answers are to come! I take it you already seen All Might given you the results right?"** The animal then moved about in the projection before showing the scoreboard again. **"You have only three villain points and sixty rescue points, which is enough for you to pass, but after looking through your records, we realized that you were Quirkless."** ("Ugh, with this shit again?!" "You just shut up and listen to the rest of it first!") **"However, let it be known that we do not turn away those that have the potential within them, especially when one is the second Quirkless to pass the entrance exam!"**

Second? There was another Quirkless that passed after him? Izuku looked back at Rex, but Rex at the time wasn't paying attention and more like listening to what the principal is saying. Deciding to ask Rex later, Izuku turned back to the projection.

" **So, here's my proposition! You will be allowed to be enrolled here in UA, but only at the Department of General Education! When the UA Sports Festival arrives, there will be your chance to transfer over to the Department of Heroics-But only if you managed to impress the teachers! Whatever your choice is Izuku Midoriya, we'll be waiting!"** And with that, the projection ended.

Everyone around Izuku were a bit confused by this turn of events. Even Inko who, while she was glad that Izuku got accepted into UA, was also confused by what just happened. "Uh, I only have one question?" An employee in the crowd asked.

"This one better be good." Jack responded after having just finishing a bottle.

"The hell was that all about?"

"Which one you talking about here?"

"The part where All Might came in first and then the principal coming in second."

"Oh yeah. I have no fucking idea."

"...This has been a weird day for us all."

"Yup."

And with that, everyone got back to setting up the party, only with less enthusiasm than before. Inko went up to Izuku and congratulated him for being enrolled before finding herself being taken away by Rose. She wanted to know more about the woman and went off to a secluded part of the restaurant where they won't be interrupted. Kid went outside as to get some fresh air from all that excitement awhile ago. Izuku, while he is excited for entering UA, was more curious about what the Principal Nezu was talking about. _'I'm the second Quirkless to enter UA? Who was the first? Maybe Rex-sensei knows.'_ With that, he walked over to where Rex was talking to one of the employees that were setting up.

When Izuku was in Rex's sight, Rex sent away one of the employees to go back to the kitchen to help make the dishes. He then grabbed another cigarette from his pocket and lit it all the same. "I bet it's about that Quirkless fellow you heard the principal talked about huh?" A nod from Izuku was all Rex needed. "Right. I'll tell you about him, just not here." Rex gestured Izuku to follow him and Izuku oblige.

A few minutes of the silent walking and the two of them found themselves on the roof of the building. Kid was seen by the railing, taking in the afternoon breeze. Kid heard the door closed and turned around to see Izuku and Rex walking towards him. "Hey Rex! You taking a break or something?"

"Something like that." Rex puffed out a ring of smoke. "I take it that you passed the exam as well Kid?"

"Yup. Though, when Izuku was first told that he'd failed, I just destroyed the disk."

"W-What?!" Izuku almost shouted at the top of his lungs. "Why would you do that?! I-!"

Kid placed a finger on Izuku's mouth, preventing him from saying anything, "Before you go on a rant here, hear me out first, alright?" Izuku numbly nodded at Kid's request before Kid removed his finger away from Izuku's mouth. "As you may or may not know, I care for the people that are closest to me. I want them to live a simple and happy life. Since Quirks have become a thing, those people that I once called friends were… rude? Bastards?" Kid waved his hand in a dismissive way. "Ah nevermind. Point is, I no longer call them friends. Why? Because now they're obsessed with wanting fame and fortune, that they'll do anything to get it. Especially cutting off ties with their closest friends. I never wanted to do with any one of them after that. Then…" Kid, at one point was looking at the sky, turned to look at Izuku dead in the eye. "I meet you. You, the guy that managed to save someone at the UA entrance exam, despite not having a Quirk."

Izuku felt like he'd heard this speech before.

"After meeting you for the first time, I asked Rex if he knew more about you and boy, did he say a lot of things about you." Izuku looked at Rex to see him just puffing up a smoke. Rex just shrugged as if he was saying 'what can you do?', "One of them being that you were one to have a heat that is pure gold. Not only that, he also told me that you think a lot!"

"I-I couldn't help it… I've always looked up to heroes that I started to catalog their Quirks."

Kid heartily laughed at Izuku's antics while Rex just ruffled his hair chuckling. "It's a good thing really! However, that's not why you're here, is it?" By the sudden change of tone from Kid, Izuku was stunned. Having learned about Kid in only few days, he picked up on Kid's behavior and his habits. It still nerves him that Kid could do something like this, all within a second. Before Izuku could say anything, Kid looked at Rex and he nodded, leaving the two alone. "That first Quirkless to had been enrolled into UA… That was my dad."

"Your… dad?"

"Yup. His name was Ren Uzumi. He-"

"Wait wait wait… Ren Uzumi? THE Ren Uzumi?"

Kid looked at Izuku confusingly. "Uh, yeah? You researched him or something?"

"Have I-!? Ren Uzumi was one of the vigilantes that had eluded the authorities and the pro heroes for about ten years! There's been talk about whether or not Ren had a Quirk and had done something in the past that lead to his expulsion at UA, which then lead to him being a vigilante and still hasn't been captured! THAT Ren Uzumi!?"

"Yup! That's my dad! I'm surprised that you researched him though! Not many people know about him. Apart from the Thunder family."

Izuku sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "W-Well, Rex told me a few things about him, but I didn't think he'd be your dad." Izuku realized why he was here in the first place and shook his head, "If your dad is the first Quirkless person to enroll at UA, why are we here on the roof? Wouldn't it be better to talk about it with everyone?" Kid just gave him the look and Izuku knew immediately why. That, however, didn't stop him from blushing from crazy. Kid only chuckled at the sight.

Afterwards, the two stood by the railing, just enjoying each others company. Izuku animatedly talked about the heroes that he'd researched and which Pro Heroes will they meet at UA while Kid told Izuku stories about the times where he'd get into trouble with a Pro Hero. Rex looked on, watching the two being kids and happily enjoying their enrollment. He blew a smoke from the lips, still smoking on the cigarette in his mouth. He looked towards the sky with a melancholy look as he contemplated this turn of events.

' _Those two better be prepared for what's about to happen in the future. UA is one hell of a school and if you add the fact that All Might is teaching there, villains won't hesitate to attack UA just to have a go at him. Not only that, there's also the fact that someone will hire us for a hit job at All Might so that they won't have to face whatever charges they'll get.'_ Rex shifted the cigarette in his mouth before holding it in his hands. _'Izuku… I know that they path you're heading down is a tough one, but I'm sure, with our help and Kid's, you'll be one hell of a hero.'_

Rex smiled at the thought and turned to look at the two, just in time to see Izuku in a headlock with Kid… Maybe he should've brought a camera along.

 _BEEP-BEEP!_

 _BE-PING!_

"Talk to me."

"Sir, we have a client waiting for us."

"Are they anyone big?"

"Something like that. They're waiting for you at the usual room."

"I'm on my way."

 _PING!_

Rex removed his finger from his ear and walked towards the two. "Hey Kid! Izuku!" Said two turned around to face Rex. "I'm going to head off first. Gotta finish closing the restaurant and counting the money. And before you say anything Izuku," Rex held up to Izuku. "No, you will not be docked for this. This is a special occasion for you and something like this doesn't happen often. Go on home and enjoy this with your mother, alright?" Izuku was hesitant in leaving, but a push from Kid and a smile from him was all Izuku needed before he made his way towards the roof's entrance.

With only Kid and Rex, Kid looked at Rex. "Is it a client?"

Rex inhaled the tobacco in the cigarette before blowing out smoke. "Yeah, a big one apparently. No idea who it is though. Might as well go and see." Rex gave Kid a sideways glance. "While you're in UA, don't do anything stupid." Kid only gave a toothy grin and Rex can only sigh in despair. Now, there was only one more thing Rex needs to clarify. "Why didn't you tell Izuku the truth about Ren?"

Kid's grin was gone in an instant and he looked at the ground. "It's his special day. I didn't want to ruin it."

"He's going to find out eventually. You will have to tell him soon enough."

"I know, I know. I just…"

Rex patted Kid on the back. "Don't worry. When the time comes, we'll be right beside you." Kid huffed, smirking and held up his fist and Rex meet him halfway. While these two were different in so many ways, there was no denying that these two would always have each other's backs. Whether one was going through a tough time, having problems with villains or involving something suicidal, they would always look out for one another.

After all, they were family.

* * *

 **A week later, Izuku's Home**

Izuku stood in front of his door wearing his newly acquired school uniform for UA. His blazer a light gray color with the tip of his sleeves been green, white undershirt tucked into his dark greenish pants and his red tie neatly tied around his neck. If anyone were to look underneath his shirt, they would see some well-developed muscles he'd acquired in the last ten months.

Alongside him was Inko, who looked a bit thinner than before. It was thanks to Rose that she was able to lose weight. Izuku didn't know what Rose said to his mom, but it was all she needed to get back into shape. Izuku will be ever grateful to Rose for helping her when she was down.

"Do you have your supplies with you?"

"Yes mom."

"Handkerchief?"

"Yup."

"Tissues?"

"Right here."

"What about-?"

"Mom! I'll be late!"

Izuku made for the door before Inko quickly said, 'Wait!' and grabbed Izuku's hand. Inko looked at her son with a proud expression. "You look really cool right now." Izuku couldn't fight back the blush that was now on his face. Once the blush was gone-but still present-Izuku gave her a smile.

"I'm off!"

* * *

The walk towards UA was about an hour from where he'd lived, so he had to take the train over to the next town. Along the way, he met Kid taking the same train, so it was…actually, Kid just spotted Izuku at a busy train station and he grabbed him by the arm, scaring him and proceeding to quickly run towards UA while dragging him. Along the way, the two talked about Pro Heroes and the many Quirks that they possessed. From an outsider's perspective, it would look like the two were huddled up together taking some drugs or whatever bad things anyone could think of.

After around two hours, they arrived at the UA gates. The sight of the H building was still as magnificent as ever. To Kid, it still looks way too big. When they got closer, they could see two people wearing riot gear, along with rifles in their hands. Both of them stood guard at the gates and watched the students walk through the gates. "Wait, were they here before?"

"Nope. But something tells me that text Rex sent us is connected to all of this."

"Text?" Izuku pulled out his phone and checked his messages. Lo and behold, a text from Rex showed up. Izuku looked at Kid who shrugged and gestured him to open it up. Izuku did so and the following message is thus…

" _To all employees and Mercenaries of the Love & Dance Restaurant. As of today, we'll be guarding UA High School as per the request of our client. We'll have men posted at the gates, patrolling the grounds, the hallways and whatnot. Anyone morbidly curious or wanting more info on the request, report to me, Jack or Rose. Until then, sit tight and guard UA with your life. Izuku, if you get this message, report to the meeting room that is located on the third floor. You will be briefed on your first Mercenary mission." _

"Ehhhhhh!? M-M-M-M-My first Mer-!?" Kid quickly covered Izuku's mouth to prevent him from saying the name. Izuku looked at Kid, who gave him the 'Really!?' look. Having almost forgotten about keeping the secret of the Mercenaries, Izuku calmed down and Kid slowly removed his hand from his mouth. "T-Thank you Kid-san. I almost gave away _that_ secret."

Kid gave him a smile along with a thumbs up. "No problem! But still, your first mission huh? Rex must really want you in on this if it was important for him to send a report on our phones, no less than calling you out!"

Izuku could give a shaky smile as he put away his phone. He looked at the H building, thinking about how long has it been since he'd meet Rex. He almost couldn't believe that he was a student of UA, not to mention the second Quirkless to have been enrolled. He smiled as the memories of Rex and the employees helping him along the way to get to this moment. Izuku could feel his eyes getting a bit wet, but were promptly wiped away as Kid patted him on the back. "Don't go crying on me now! This here is only the starting line! If we are to become heroes, then we gotta give it our all!"

Izuku smirked at Kid's proclamation and held out his fist to Kid. "Then let's give it our all!"

"Yeah!" Kid fistbumped Izuku and the two walked into UA with their heads held high.

* * *

 **Third Floor of UA**

Izuku walked the enormous hallway with a gleeful expression. Never before had he been inside of the school, so he was relishing in this new surrounding. On the left of Izuku were rows of windows that showed the trees and the courtyard. On the right were doors that were big enough for someone that has the Gigantific Quirk or something similar to it.

Kid had already parted ways and promised him to meet up with him at the end of school. Izuku told Kid not to make too much of a fuss and the answer that he got was a grin. It wasn't a good sign, so hopefully Kid wouldn't do anything stupid before the day ends.

"Where's the meeting room? I'm gonna be late for my first class," Izuku muttered to himself. Rex didn't specify which room would he be in, only that he was on the third floor somewhere. He wanted to ask around to see if there was a meeting room, but there was no one in sight as most of the students hurried towards their first class of the semester. Izuku stumbled upon a door that didn't have a letter liked the other doors have on them. "I hope this is the one." Izuku hovered his hand over the handle, trying to relax himself. Once he got his nerves together, he opened the door while saying 'Excuse me!'

Inside the room were two couches with a coffee table in the middle, rows of cabinets at the side of the room and windows with an outside view of the city. Rex and Rose stood inside of the room, the former looking outside and the latter smoking a cigar. Rex was wearing his standard uniform but it was outfitted with two holsters. One being at his waist with a standard M1911 in it and in the other held a combat knife. Rex's shoe had some upgrades to it as it now had a taser implanted at the tip of the shoe and blades at the butt of the shoe.

Rose was another thing to behold. Wearing a skin-tight suit with some a zipper down a bit to show off some cleavage, she had holsters that held multiple knives in them. One being wrapped around her waist and on her right leg. Her long red hair was now adorned with various of accessories ranging from stars to ducks. Both turned around at the noise to see Izuku at the door. "Ara ara, Izu-chan! There you are! We were wondering where you were."

"I didn't receive anything where you guys would be other than the floor you were at, so…"

Rose gave Rex a sideways glance at him, making Rex sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. Rose could only sigh. "Haaaa, I can see that now. Anyways, we called you here because we wanted to fill you in about our situation." Izuku peaked at that and made to sit next to Rex. "Right now, we have about over two dozen of our men stationed near the entrance to UA, the surrounding forest and in the hallways."

"Wait, the hallways? I didn't see anything on my way here. Neither did Kid." Izuku clearly confused by Rose's statement.

"Well, it's our built-in camouflage system that we managed to create a while back. Those that were positioned in the hallway are equipped with this so that they don't scare the students and make it look like they're in prison of sorts."

"I guess that makes sense. If anyone were to see someone heavily equipped, they'll assume the worst has yet to come or that it's coming soon. I'm assuming this is related to my first mission?"

"Right you are there Izuku," Rex decided to join in on the conversation, "As of today, your mission is to guard UA."

"Guard… UA? Isn't the pro heroes enough for protection?"

Rex huffed as if he'd heard something funny. "While that may be true, our client deemed it necessary for some extra protection, since All Might is teaching here and all."Izuku thought for a moment as something about this whole scenario sounded familiar.

All Might teaching…

Client wanting more protection…

Client…

…!

"The principal is the client!?"

Rex did a finger bang pose. "Yup! The principal paid us some good money to hire our services! Sooo much money…!"

"I could finally have enough to afford new makeup!" Rose said with the starry eye gaze.

Izuku didn't share that sentiment with the two as he wondered why would the principal hire them. Sure, the pro heroes and their Quirks were more than enough to protect UA, unless there was a hidden meaning behind all this. Maybe the principal wanted to hire the Mercenaries so that he could make them public and increase the relation between the Quirk and the Quirkless. Or it could be that the principal wanted to hire the Mercenaries in a way that they'd be doing the dirty work while the principal would take the credit. Wait, what if-?!

"Oi Izuku. You're mumbling again."

Izuku quickly covered his mouth as he looked over to Rose and Rex. "S-Sorry. I'm just curious as to why we were hired."

"Yeah, we figured as much." Rex stood up from his seat and patted Izuku on the head. "Don't sweat the details though. We're getting paid to do this kind of job that no one else wants to do. It's what us Mercenaries do." Rex ended with a small smile.

Izuku frowned a bit as he let that sink in. He knew the risks that came to being a Mercenary, being hired to the one that buys their services first or the one with the highest payment. Still, that doesn't mean that he lost the right to complain though. "Was that all, Rex-sensei?"

Rex thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. "One last thing before you head off to class. While this may be your first Mercenary mission, this is only a trial run."

"A trial run?" Izuku probably knew where this was going, but he'd thought he make sure he had heard it right. " I thought I was already a Mercenary?"

"You're an employee to the restaurant, but not to the Mercenary business. See it as like a promotion of sorts from restaurant employee to full time Mercenary."

"Oh… How do I get promoted?"

"By fighting my husband in one-on-one combat." Rose chimed in. "My husband does like to fight and when he sees that an employee is ready for a promotion, he challenges them to fight against him. If they win, they get to join the Mercenary ranks. If they lose, it's fine as they'll get another chance in the future. However, if any employee wants to join the Mercenary ranks but don't know what it's like, we give them a trial run like we're giving you now. Normally, these trial runs would run for about two months or so. However, seeing that you're now a student here, we're extending it to about four months."

"Does that also apply to the rest of the employees?"

"Yes, that's correct. However, we're only implementing this new policy as a way to convince some of our employees into becoming Mercenaries."

"Wait, you mean not everyone at the restaurant is a Mercenary?"

"Mhm. they been through some tough times in the past so it would make sense that they would stay as employees." Rose shrugged. "We're not one to judge them, of course. It's entirely their decision and we have to respect them."

Izuku nodded to that. After that, Rose and Rex briefed Izuku on the mission. Like what Rose and Rex said before, their job entitles them to guard UA for a duration of semester while working alongside with the other pro heroes. While they're on guarding duty, they would also have living accommodations near UA High for all Mercenaries with the exception of Izuku. Since this was a trial run for him, he wouldn't be living there but he would be allowed to visit them. Not only that, should an emergency arise, all Mercenaries would have to report over and deal with it.

"...And that about sums it all up. Anything else you didn't know Izu-chan?"

"No, I think I got it. Although, I don't think I would like it if I have to kill someone."

"I know. It's not something should get used to and it's one I don't want you to experience at all. You're still a child and even with that golden heart of yours, you don't have to do it alone." Rose placed her hand on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "Mercenaries stick together like family. And when someone messes with one of ours…"

"Suffice to say," Rex adding in with a puff of smoke. "No one wants to fuck with us."

Izuku didn't know why but he got chills running down his spine when Rex said that. He never had got used to it when Rex said things like that, but it did show that he cares for everyone at the restaurant. Rose walked to the door, along with Rex who was already out by the time their explanation was over, gestured Izuku to do the same. "Well, we said our piece. Now come along, you don't want to be late for the opening ceremony~!" Izuku could only sigh as Rose added in a wink. And yet, she was right. This is his first day here and he couldn't waste this opportunity and miss it!

Izuku followed Rose and as they walked in the hallway in silence, Izuku silently vowed that he would not let this dream of his go down in flames. He would become a hero and save everyone with a smile!

And maybe… just maybe, change society for the better.

* * *

 **Yeah, that's where I decided to put him. Still a Mercenary and now a student of UA. I feel like there's a meaning behind this... but then again, who knows? Only one way to find out! I'll see you guys in the next one!**

 **See you later!**


	7. First Day at UA

**Well, I'm back again with another brand new chapter! Thank you for those that read this and thank you to my beta for helping me with this!**

 **Also, I'm finish with my finals! Huzzah! However, updates will appear random so... there's that. I won't let it stop me though!**

 **Thank you for reading this fic of mine.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

You know… when I first meet Izuku, he was just a bundle of mess. All fidgeting and looked like a lost puppy. The first thing that came to mind when I first spoke to him was 'You don't have a Quirk, do you?' I meant that as a joke in a way that would help him snap out of it and help me understand what their Quirk is. Turns out, Izuku didn't have a Quirk and that shocked me. Almost everyone at the entrance exam has one and Izuku didn't. This guy got guts, I'll tell you that much.

When the exam was over, I wanted to congratulate him for being the only Quirkless who had the balls to take the exam despite his status. However, that big attack I did nearly drained me and also left me with a bunch of bruises and cuts that kinda forced me to stay with Recovery Girl for a while. By the time my injuries were healed up, he was gone.

I went over to the restaurant later to ask Rex about the guy that had took the entrance exam along with me. He had quite a lot to say about him. Being Quirkless, having to deal with bullies for about ten years and constantly being reminded of his status. Apparently, Rex had a heart-to-heart conversation with Izuku and felt the need to share it with Rose and Jack, and figured that telling one more person wouldn't hurt.

" _Wait, how do you know this already?"_

" _He told me."_

" _He told you or…?"_

" _No, I didn't beat it out of him! He told me out of his own will! Why would I or anyone wanna hurt a guy like that?!"_

" _Apparently the people that he was with in the past."_

" _...You know that reminds me. I still need to pay them a visit."_

" _Wait for a few months and then you can do your worst."_

Note to self: Never mess with Rex whenever he's angry.

In any case, I learned more about him and the more I do, the more I feel that the world around us is just cruel. Those that have a Quirk would band with other Quirk users and those that were Quirkless were left behind, to be forgotten. It made me sick to see something like this happen in the real world. With the suicide rates increasing for the Quirkless, it would seem that society had turned a blind eye to them, like they don't even matter. At one point, I wanted to scream, to do something that would change how people would see Quirkless.

Which is why I'm here in UA. To change the hero society from within and make them see that the Quirkless are humans like us.

I'll change the hero society so that _everyone_ would be equal.

And hopefully…

To help Izuku feel normal.

* * *

"God damn! This door is huuuuge!"

In front of me was a door that looked waaay too big to be the size of a normal sliding door. It looked like it would fit a person that had some kind of gigantification Quirk of sorts so that they didn't have to awkwardly stand outside all day. Smiling to myself, I placed my hand on the door and walked into my new class-

"Please get your feet off of your desk! This is highly disrespectful towards our classmates!"

"Huuh?! You trying to pick a fight with me you extra!?"

-and promptly replaced that smile with a confused expression. What the hell did I just walk into?

The guy with the glasses straighten his back like a robot and did some weird hand motions. "That is not my name! I'm Iida Tenya from Soumei Junior High! I would like to your name so that we would work together in the future!"

"Soumei, huh?! Bakugou Katsuki, and I don't give a crap if you're some kind of elitist! You're just another pebble in my way! All you're doing is giving me another reason to end you!"

"What?! A reason to end me!? Is that befitting for someone like you to become a hero?!"

As the glass guy talked to that explosive guy, he turned towards me where I was just standing by the door frame just watching their conversation and walked towards me in a stiff manner. "Hello, my name is-"

"Yeah I know. I heard it by the door. Name's Kidou Uzumi." Huh, a bit uptight this guy, but he seems pretty okay.

Iida then had a pained expression as he clenched his fist. "Uzumi, you managed to figure out the true nature of that entrance exam didn't you? Which is why-!"

"Actually, I didn't even know about that part of the exam either. I just wanted to punch that robot."

Silence fell between the two of us. I could swear I heard some cricket noises somewhere… "Punch… the robot?"

"I mean, doesn't anyone want to do that?"

Even more silence fell. I used this opportunity to take a look inside of the classroom and at my classmates. Some of them were, wait actually all of them were looking at me with a perplexed expression. Can't blame them really. I mean, I don't think anyone had managed to face that zero-pointer robot head on like I did. As I looked around the room, my eyes landed on the one individual that I thought I wouldn't have to see.

Bakugou Katsuki.

From what Rex told me, this guy was once Izuku's childhood friend and that they were inseparable as children. When Katsuki first got his Quirk, that's where things went wrong. Katsuki got more and more cocky with his Quirk and when Izuku didn't have a Quirk, his childhood friend turned into his worst nightmare. I wanted to punch his face so badly that I wanted him to end up in hell. But I got the feeling that Izuku somehow still respected him after all those years and that if I were to punch him here and now and Izuku heard about this, it would not be pretty.

"Ah! It's you! The wild kid!"

Me and Iida turned our attention towards the door to see the girl that had managed to escape from the robot thanks to Izuku. Well, at least she's fine to walk that's for sure. Wait, did she just say-? I didn't get to finish that thought before she went up to me. "You got in! I knew that you would! That blast you did was awesome!" I smiled showing my teeth in admiration. I didn't plan on getting any sort of attention to me, but it seems like that would be the attended side effect for the time.

Eh, as long as it doesn't get in the way. Although I couldn't say the same for the others…

The girl looked into the classroom as if she was looking for something, thought I can make one guess from this. "You looking for that curly-kid right?"

"Yeah. Is he…?"

"No worries, he got in. He's just in the Department of General Education is all."

"General Education? What for?"

"Some details left my mind, but there were some circumstances that led to him being placed in that department so…"

She looked a bit sad at first, but then brighten back up. "Oh well! At least he's in! I'm happy about that! So what do you think about we're going to do today? I mean, we could be doing anything on our first day!"

"Huh, that's a good question. Maybe-"

"If you kids are here to make buddies, go somewhere else."

A voice suddenly announced itself behind the girl and we promptly looked towards the source of the voice to see someone huddled in some kind of sleeping bag. He then shuffled around his bag and grabbed out some juice. "This is the Department of Heroics. There will be no time for you to get all friendly." Although he did finish that juice, I said the first thing that came out of my mouth.

"Is that a caterpillar?"

No one said anything to my question, but the guy that was in the sleeping bag stood up and emerged from the sleeping bag. He had a scarf wrapped around his neck and was wearing for the pants and shirt. His face looked dead. I mean, look at him! It looked like he hadn't slept in years! So I thought I should say something to let him know what I thought. "Holy shit! It just birthed a man!"

 _BONK!_

"Gah!"

A goose egg formed on the top of my head as I held my head in pain. I looked up to see him looking down at me. His appearance didn't say much, but I could tell that he was annoyed by my antics. He then gestured us all to head to our seats. Iida went off to where he was previously seated, the girl went behind Iida's seat and I, myself, behind Katsuki. He sneered at me and I returned the look.

The teacher walked over to the podium that was up at the front of the room. "I'm Aizawa Shouta, your homeroom teacher for your semester." He made to grab something from the inside of his sleeping bag and out came some kind of gym outfit. The outfit itself had white lines around the neck and lines that went from the stomach down to the feet. On the side of the arms were about the same except it had one thin red line surrounding a small white circle leading down to the sleeves. "Wear these and go to the P.E. grounds after you're done changing." Before anyone could have a say, he left the room with the sleeping bag in hand.

...Well, that was weird.

* * *

 **Teacher's Office, UA High**

Inside UA was the teacher's office, where rows of desk filled with books of records, pencils, and anything that was school-related. Sitting in one of the desks was a frail, thin man wearing a yellow, somewhat tacky suit that had red striped lines and formal brown shoes. Currently, he was looking at the school records book to see which pro hero was assigned to which class for the semester. And he wasn't alone.

Jack stood behind him look at the school record as well. Jack ran into the guy a few minutes ago while he was patrolling and decided to have a chat with him to pass the time. While talking with him, he found out that the man, Yagi Toshinori, was working for All Might and that he'd be working alongside with him during his time at UA. They reached the teacher's office in no time and Yagi looked through the records to find what he was looking for. "So, tell me something Yagi. What is it that you're hoping to find in that book?"

"Something that can tell me which class is All Might assigned to and what kind of students will be in his class." Yagi said without taking his eyes off the book.

Jack nodded to that and looked out the window. Since the Mercenaries were hired by the principal, they set up a schedule for them as to find out who does what for each day. On certain days, half of the Mercenaries would be guarding the grounds and the halls of UA while the other half would be resting. Some of them had taken upon themselves to explore their new surrounding as to not get lost when it was their shift. It was a messy organization of the schedule, but they were able to find one eventually.

Suddenly, Yagi did a sharp intake of air alerting Jack from the window. "What's wrong?" Yagi didn't say anything and opted to show Jack the record. Jack skimmed through it to see what made Yagi shocked about. Then, he saw it.

Aizawa Shouta. Pro Hero name: Eraserhead. Quirk: Erasure. Expulsion: 154.

"This might be bad for the new students that were enrolled here. Aizawa-san is known for expelling students that he deemed to have no potential. Last year, he expelled an entire class! I fear that the student's future here at UA would quickly come to an end."

Jack looked at the record and back to Yagi and back at it again. After looking at the record of Aizawa, Jack chuckled. "Oh man, I hope he can survive this year." Yagi looked at Jack as if he'd grew a second head. "What? If Kid's in Class 1-A, then he'll need as much luck as he can get."

"Ah, this 'Kid', he wouldn't happen to have the last name Uzumi?" Jack nodded and Yagi seemed to beam at that.

"Oh! He does! And he wouldn't happen to be the son of that man, Ren Uzumi?"

"You know him?"

"Know him? He was a legend here at UA! I happened to chat with him from time to time and gave out some tips for those that asked! Not only that, he was one of the first Quirkless people to had ever been enrolled here!" He then gave a sigh. "It was a shame that he was expelled after his first year here. He made such a huge impact here."

Jack gave a _hmph_ as he looked back at the record. After about a few minutes of looking through the record, he made his way towards the door. "Well, let's go see what Kid can get himself into then." Yagi smiled at that and promptly followed him towards the grounds. Though, as they walked towards the grounds, Jack's mind was still on Ren Uzumi. _'Didn't think_ _you'd_ _be the talk among the teachers here, let alone some of them. It seems like yesterday when Ren was talking about how he himself was enrolled here. Ren… wherever you are now…'_

' _You'd better be alive.'_

* * *

 **P.E. Grounds, UA High; Kid's POV**

Once all of us changed into our gym uniforms, we made our way towards the P.E. grounds. It was like any other high schools ground would have, white lines dedicating which area is which and then some. After we had managed to settle down, Aizawa then told us that we'd be having a Quirk Apprehension Test. I felt like this was a way to determine who got to stay and which ones got their asses expelled. UA did expect a lot out of their students if they wanted to become heroes. As he continued, my mind was somewhere else at the moment as I looked up to the sky in a daze.

After from what I think was about three minutes, an explosion rang out causing me to snap out of it and looked towards the source. Apparently Bakugou had stepped forward for something and smoke was coming out from his hands. "This is what UA expects from you." Aizawa had a phone in his hands and he showed us what was on it.

Damn! I don't know what Bakugou did, but he got a whooping 705.2 meters!

Everyone around me started to get excited at the opportunity to show off their Quirks or something and I even heard someone said, "This looks like fun!" Huh, sounds like Ochako. As I looked over the crowd, my eyes landed over at Aizawa hold held his face in his hands for some reason. Why was he doing that?

"Fun, you say?" Aizawa interrupted the musing of the crowd. "You think this is all a game? What happened to becoming heroes?" Aizawa looked at us, but it wasn't the look where a teacher would give when scolding a student. It looked… like a villain. "Let's add in a new rule, shall we? Whoever places last in the test will be expelled, and will be judged as nothing."

After what seemed to be an eternity, which was really about a minute, everyone started to protest against that rule.

"Expulsion on the first day?! You can't do that! It's unreasonable!" someone in the crowd exclaimed.

"It's unreasonable? Japan is drenched with 'unreasonables'. Natural disasters, Maniacal villains, Critical accidents, anything can happen when you live the life as a hero." He scratched his head a bit before continuing. "It's the job of heroes to restore the peace and the reason to the people. If you're thinking that it's going to be a walk in the park for the next three years, too bad. You will encounter hardship after hardship as we'll mold you into the heroes we want you to be. This…"

" **Is Plus Ultra.** "

Something resonated within me as he said those words. I didn't know what it was, but it felt… good. Real good. I smiled widely showing all of my teeth as I bashed my fist into my hand, my classmates startled by my sudden action. "Fine then. If Plus Ultra is the motto here, then I'm going 'All Out!'. So bring it on! Let me show you my full power!" Soon enough, everyone seemed to have pumped themselves up and cheered a bit. I looked Aizawa dead in the eye and he did the same. I couldn't tell what Aizawa was thinking, but if I had to guess…

He was expecting a lot out of us and I intended to show it to him. After all, I'm going 'All Out!'.

* * *

The tests were a bit manageable as they were just tests from middle school. The 50 meter dash, the long jump, etc, etc. The only difference was that we could use our Quirks to help us. During those tests, I only used my Quirk when I needed a boost, the rest I used my own strength to help me pull through. I didn't want to use my Quirk that often 'cause if I did, I would be showing off all of my skills and I didn't want that! Besides, it's a lot more fun to show off my skills during a real battle.

Then came the ball toss test.

Most of my classmates throws' were good, others were just bad and some… best be forgotten. When it was my turn, I stepped into the circle as Aizawa watched me hold the ball in my hand. _'I wonder how I should throw this one… Maybe with a boost at the end? Or rather with a power-up? ….Man, this is hard.'_ I scratched my head as I tried to come up with a way to increase the range of my throw. As I thought of this, I glanced over at my classmates while they were waiting for me to do something with my Quirk or wondering what my Quirk is that got me here.

Of course they'd be curious about it. Why wouldn't they? My Quirk allows me to manipulate the energy around me and I can use it for either an attack or to heal my energy reserves. The only drawback from this would be that I can't heal myself and if I used up all of my energy within me, I conked out and who knows when I'll wake back up. Not only that, I couldn't go over my limit of how much energy I took in without damaging my body from within. It sucked, but it is what it is.

While it is an emitter-type Quirk, I couldn't help but feel jealous of the other's Quirks that allowed them to change their appearance or alter their look completely when they first get their Quirk. I always wondered what it would be like if I were to change into something cool…a dragon. Definitely a dragon.

"Hurry up. We haven't got all day here." Aizawa's voice rang out snapping me out of my daze. I sheepishly rubbed the back of my head as he gave me a stern look and readied myself. Well, if everything fails today, then I'll have to show them what I've got!

I threw the ball into the air and a ball of energy was wrapped around it, growing bigger and bigger until it was big enough to fit an entire truck. Once that's done, I then shaped into the head of a dragon as it roared into the sky. I smirked as I pitched my arm back. "Here we go! _**BAAAAOOOUUUUUU ZAAAAKEERRRRGAAAA!**_ "

The dragon's head opened its mouth and soon, beams of energy gathered around its mouth, ready to fire off the attack-!

 _PING!_

-that is, until the dragon's head suddenly disappeared. The ball fell towards me and I grabbed it when it got too close. Curiously, I looked around to find out what had caused it to disappeared… and why I can't feel my Quirk. "Thinking of using that attack you did at the entrance exam, are you?" I turned around to face Aizawa to see his eyes glowing red along with his hair and scarf… floating? Wait, floating? ...Aw crap.

Suddenly, his scarf shot out towards me and I barely managed to roll my way out of the attack. After that, I quickly went on the defensive and raised my hands in a boxing stance. How the hell did I not notice this before?! This was Aizawa Shouta, a Pro Hero that went by the name Eraserhead! I knew that his Quirk was Erasure, which could pretty much negate any Quirk in use, but that doesn't matter! What does matter is that he's taken on several forms of martial arts in order to compensate his Quirk. Along with skill as a pro hero, it would be a lost cause to take him on with the way I'm in now.

And yet, I'd still fight him even regardless of whether or not he took away my Quirk..

"That attack you did back at the entrance exam," Aizawa stated as if it was a fact, "it was flashy alright, strong even. But you let yourself be open. That attack drained you, left you vulnerable. What are you going to do when a villain sees you drained of your energy? They won't hesitate to kill you on sight nor will they hold you hostage for something. Every hero runs the risk of losing their lives on the job. Even their family, should they get a hold of your information, will be hurt." He blinked his eyes and the hair and scarf fell towards their natural state. I held out my hand to see the familiar spark fly again. "I've given you back your Quirk. Try not to overdo it this time."

I looked at my hand as I could feel my Quirk again. As I did, I processed what Aizawa said to me. It is true that the attack I did back at the entrance exam was taxing on me, but it was the only thing that was on my mind was to defeat it so that I could help Izuku and that girl escape. Actually, now that I think about it, that girl seemed to be… bubbly when we first meet. Maybe she-

Okay, focus here! No time for that, you're about to get your ass expelled here! No way you can leave Izuku here alone!

So, using that overpowered attack of mine won't work. I guess that would make sense. If I were to use an attack like that, I _would_ be leaving myself up for an opening for an enemy to exploit. Even my dad told me not to do that when I use my Quirk! Then what can I do to show him that I'm serious?

...Well, I could try using _that_. That could work. I hope… Eh, first time for everything!

I leave the ball on the ground and took a few steps back. I put my hand in a finger gun pose and aimed at the ball. " **Zagurzem!** " A ball of thunder shot out from my hand and towards the ball. Once it made contact, the ball glowed with lightning making it flair around the ball. Smiling to myself, I took in a deep breath in and breathed out. " **1,000 Volt Charge! Maximum Output!** " I could feel my entire body tense up as I charged up. Not only that, I could feel myself getting paralyzed by the minute. _'Damn it! Since I mostly use my Quirk for outside attacks, I didn't have the time to train using this!'_ Pushing that thought for later, I quickly made to kick the ball sky-high.

" _ **CHAAARRRGGE SSHHOOOOOTTT!"**_

The ball instantly went flying towards the sky and it even crashed through one of the passing clouds. The ball went flying through the sky for a few minutes before descending down back to Earth and landed with a thud before rolling towards a stop. I could feel my leg has just been stabbed a hundred times and some other things, but I held on. "Hey… Aizawa." I held out my fist to him as I gave him a wobbly grin. "I may be down, but I'm not out yet! So do your worst! I'll take it all in!"

What he gave in return was a wide grin showing his teeth.

"Cheeky brat…!"

* * *

 **Meanwhile, At the temporary housing of the Mercenaries**

The building that the Mercenaries were currently residing in looked like a mansion on the outside. With the stairs leading towards the entrance of the building, trees planted alongside of the path and other garden decors that were planted. The building itself looked like it could house up to about a thousand, maybe a hundred thousand people if UA were to extend it.

The interior, on the other hand, was filled with many furnitures ranging from chairs, tables and other assortment. On one side was a widescreen TV that had all sorts of digital gadgetry lying about in front of the television. At the other side of the TV room was a table that had extended all the way over to the other side of the building. There were about 100 chairs placed side-by-side with one another. The kitchen was where the middle of the table was and it looked pristine. However…

"Come on, captain!"

"You got this!"

There were currently three individuals standing in front of the big television as one was holding a game controller and the other two were cheering them on.

The one holding the controller was a man with the age of 22 years old, brown wavy hair, freckles on his cheek and wide, yellow eyes. On his head was a blue baseball cap with the words 'HERE LIES ME' on the front. He was wearing a standard riot gear with his helmet off, an MP5 to the side along with some mags next to it.

On the couch were two people cheering on the man as he played the game. One of them a boy and the other a girl. Both had heterochromia, which is a symptom where one iris is a different color from the other eye. The boy's left eye was red and the other blue while the girl had the same color as the boy but the opposite. The boy wore a black t-shirt with a picture of a dinosaur roaring at the sky on a cliff with a blue backdrop and black military pants while the girl wore a black tank-top. Their sidearms resting to the side of the man's MP5.

The man playing the game was Harrison Dorsey, a member of the Mercenaries. The two sitting on the couch were Lavina and Tyson Teel, also Mercenaries. Harrison came from Houston, Texas and moved over to Japan as he wanted to start a new life from the shitty job he had before. Lavina and Tyson, on the other hand, lived in the same general area as Harrison before he moved out and were considered to be freaks as they were cast out from their homes and had to wonder the streets to survive. While scavenging for some food, they came across Harrison as he was out and about walking and Harrison offered them a place to stay. One thing led to another and now Lavina and Tyson followed him like puppies.

How Harrison got them to follow him is a story for another time.

Harrison glared at the screen while doing some erratic movements with the controller. A few minutes went by and a loud noise came from television. Harrison stood like a statue with his mouth agape and his eyes bulging out of his sockets. The same could be said to the two on the couch. Then…

"ALRIGHT!"

"YEEAHAHAHA!"

"FINALLY!"

The three jumped into the air and started to hug each other as they bawled their eyes out. "Good job captain! I knew you could do it!" Tyson cheered.

"Yeah, and it only took at least fifty tries!" Lavina add.

"Yeah! And-" Tyson stopped himself before facing his sister. "Fifty tries? I thought it was only thirty."

"No, I counted. It was fifty."

"Fifty?! It was thirty! Our captain is that great, he could finish it within a minute!"

"Even so, we have to look at it logically!"

The two bicker about it and the conversation then turned into whether or not they could hold the most kittens in their hands, which was kinda cute and strange at the same time. Harrison, on the other hand, just looked down at the ground in shame. "I'm not that bad…" Apparently, the two didn't hear as their bickering got louder and he just looked more sad.

As this was going on, the entrance to the building was swung open revealing a person wearing a full armour riot gear. "So that's where you guys are!"

The trio stopped whatever they were doing now and turned to face the person at the door. "Oh! Bill! What are you doing here?" Harrison spoke in surprise.

When the person removed his helmet, he had… actually, he just looked like every other guy you would find on the street. "Been looking for you guys. Jack boss wants us over at the gym."

Tyson was the one that spoke up first from the trio. "Really? What does Boss Jack want?"

"No idea. Everyone's heading over there as we speak as soon when the announcement went out. I'll meet you guys at the gym. Try not to get lost." And with that, he left as he came in.

The trio looked at each other before grabbing their weapons that they haphazardly thrown on the couch and made their way to the gym.

* * *

Upon reaching the gym, the majority of the Mercenaries had already arrived and are talking amongst each other. While some were talking about their day and how the students were, others were wondering why were the called to the gym. Some of the Mercenaries were wearing civilian clothing as they were not on duty. The trio from before were no different. Once all of them were in, one of them placed a finger into their ear.

"Boss Jack? You read me right?"

"Yeah, I hear ya. We got everyone?"

"By the looks of things, yeah."

As soon as the confirmation came in, Jack, Rose and Rex came out from the curtains and made their way to the center of the stage. Everyone started talking to them, asking 'what's going on?' or 'is it something with the client?'.

"Alright everyone! Shut up and I'll explain!" That managed to get everyone's attention. "Okay, now all of you may or may not know that the principal of this prestigious academy is our client and that it wants us to guard this place with the Pro Heroes." There was a mumble among the crowd as they did remember Jack saying something like that to them, "Apparently, there's been a new development in our agreement." The mumbles got a lot louder.

"A new development? What for?"

"What else could we do besides guard a bunch of kids?"

"Now now," Rex stepped up to calm the crowd. "Yes, it's a surprise to us as well, but like what the old man said, there's something that our client wanted us to do as well and I don't know if you'll like it or not. And-"

"We're teaching the brats along with guarding them."

Rex just gave Jack a look that just said 'Really?!', and Jack just shrugged.

Before anyone could speak, Rose decided that since the two looked like they were going to kill each other, she jumped in before anything could happen. "Yes, our client wants us to teach the students here on how to fight without the use of their Quirks."

Just then, the crowd started asking questions left and right as if they were desperate for some of Rex's cooking.

"I thought we just needed to guard the kids, not teach them to kill!"

"And since when were we teachers?! We couldn't even teach anything good to them!"

"Yeah! We're killers, not teacher!"

Soon, the gym was filled with noise as the Mercenaries practically yelled out to them, wanting to know why they were tasked with teaching.

" _ **WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP!?"**_

At some point, Jack and Rex stopped bickering, having just finished talking about whatever it was before the yelling started, and promptly just yelled out to the group while Rose slowly grew agitated. It was true, however. Mercenaries were contracted killers, not teachers.

Heroes, Villains and Vigilantes were the three groups that had dominated society today. Mercenaries, on the other hand, were a group that were kept out of the light due to various reasons. However, the number one reason as to why they were kept out of the light is because of how it was like Vigilantism, only they got paid to do the dirty deeds that no one else wants to do.

Mercenaries had been around before Quirks were a thing and in most cases, Mercenaries would be hired by a country, businesses or anyone really, to either guard them or have some more men on their sides when things go south. Even then, Mercenaries were generally used for war on either side. It didn't really matter to them if they were fighting for something as long as they were getting paid. Sometimes, one side would offer a higher sum of money to the Mercenaries and if it was higher than the one their clients, then they would switch sides. In other words…

Morals didn't matter to Mercenaries. They only fought for the side that's paying them.

As the years went by, Quirks started to show up and soon found themselves in need of some cash. However, the government had caught wind of the Mercenaries and had declared all Mercenaries and anyone associated with them would receive the death penalty. Since then, they been on the run from the government and kept their secrets away from their loved ones, in the event they be compromised. Only a handful of people were made aware of the Mercenaries existence and had been using their services since the dawn of Heroes. And now wasn't all that different.

Jack cleared his throat before continuing. "Right. I know that most of you don't know a thing about teaching. Hell, neither do I, and _I'm_ the one teaching you bums!"

' _But all you do is beat us…'_ The majority sweated as Jack laughed.

One Mercenary spoke up. "We are getting paid double for this right? I don't want to have to deal with any shit or whining from the kids."

"Oh yeah. Boss man said so itself." The crowd then fell into murmur as they discusses this new task they were handed. "In addition, Boss man is allowing us to teach the students here in whatever way we want. So, that's a plus on us. And no, we don't mean _that_! Get your mind out of the gutter you sick fuck!" With that proclamation, Jack sent them on their merry way with a bit of confusion etched onto their faces. Soon, the entire gym was empty… save for the previous three and several other people wanting to know about the new situation they're put in.

While Jack, Rose and Rex were talking about something, the three got together in a huddle. "So, what do you think of this Lavina?" Harrison started off.

"Well," Lavina placed a hand on her chin. "From what I can tell, it's either the client of ours has planned this from the start or our bosses had no idea it was in the contract."

"Yeah, I'm leaning towards Jack boss's oversight on the thing," Tyson added.

"Never mind that. Although that might be a good point, I still don't have a good feeling about this." No-one said anything as they were contemplating what was said. It was true that none of the Mercenaries had any teaching materials that they could teach to the students, so it was a mystery as to why they were being tasked to do this.

"Maybe…" Harrison hesitantly said, "It's a coup of sorts?" The two looked at Harrison funny as if he'd just told a joke. "Well, I mean. What if our client intentionally hired us as a way to show the public about how Quirkless people are really useless?"

Tyson gave a _hmm_ sound in a thoughtful way. "Maybe. But from what I heard, the client isn't all that bad. Plus, when you think about it, why would the client would want to hire a bunch of Quirkless people like us? I mean, some of us do have Quirks, but-"

"Maybe that's it." Lavina interrupted Tyson before he could go into a rant. "Maybe they just wanted to hire us just to put more of a bad name on the Quirkless. Society is already fucked up about the Quirkless, why not add more fire to it?"

"While all this is fun and all," The three turned their heads towards the source of the sound to find Rose standing in front of the three. "I do applaud you for trying to figure out the meaning behind this. But, there's one little thing that you forgot to mention." Rose did a hand motion and promptly summoned up a bottle of wine from somewhere. "We're Mercenaries. Whether or not our client has something in the works or not, we'll deal with it when the time comes. And even then, they'll be sorely underestimating us."

The trio did looked a bit worried about that fact. It was known that since about the majority of the Mercenaries are Quirkless and that they had to train like hell to get to where they are today, but some of the Mercenaries do have Quirks, it's just that no one knows who has what. Even if they had a Quirk, they would wear Quirk Suppressant bracelets whenever they had to work in the restaurant as to not to disturb the customers. Only when they were given explicit permission or when they were off duty could they take off the bracelets.

Still, it didn't sit right with the trio.

Before they knew it, Rose placed a hand on Harrison's shoulder causing him to jump a little at the contact. "Don't worry. We'll figure something out should anything happen." Harrison looked like he wanted to say something, but felt a bit calmer after seeing Rose flashed him a warm smile. With a nod, Harrison led the two out the gym, leaving Jack, Rex and herself in the gym. She looked at the two that were staring at her from the stage. With her Quirk, she could see what expression they were wearing. Jack was nodding to her with an indifferent expression while Rex had a thoughtful one. Rose understood what they were trying to convey and went back to them.

They'd need to be careful, lest they end up dead.

* * *

 **Few Hours later**

After Aizawa's surprise Quirk Assessment test, one student getting expelled on the spot and a whole lotta stuff that I didn't pay attention to, everyone went on their merry way. I was standing by the gate talking with the guys that were guarding the gate.

"No way! That really happened?!" one of the guards said.

"Yup. He just expelled him on the spot." I snapped my fingers. "Just like that."

"Just like that, huh?" another guard said. "Well, it is UA. They're practically wanting students to go all out."

"I mean, it _is_ their slogan. Plus Ultra right?"

Both guards nodded at that. "By the way, which student got expelled?"

I placed my hand on my chin as I thought about it. "I think it was that kid with the weird grape hair. He was always looking at the girls funny and when the assessment was over, he was in last place and was kicked out."

"Esh, tough school. But then again, he was looking at the girls lewdly. I wonder if-"

His colleague elbowed him in the gut, causing him to cough in reaction. The one that was about to make a perverted comment was about to retort but stopped himself when he sees his partner giving him a glare that dared him to finish that sentence. He backed off with his hands in the air as a surrendering gesture. "Hehe… too much?"

"What do you think?"

I just laughed at the sight in front of me as Guard 1 was just getting scolded by his colleague.

"Ah! Kid-kun!"

I heard a voice coming from the direction of the gate and when I looked over their shoulders, I saw that gravity girl and that engine guy walking from the school. I waved back to them as they walked over. "Hey guys! What brings you guys here?"

"Do you want to walk home together?" The engine guy-Iida, I think-asked me. "I was hoping that I get to know my fellow classmates together as this will help provide us heroes-in-training build a better connection with each other!"

It took all I got to stop myself from laughing out loud. Seriously, this guy way too funny! The way that he moved his hand… it's just so funny! It took me a while before I was able to calm myself down. "Sorry, but I'll have to decline. I'm waiting for someone."

"I see! And who would this 'someone' be?"

Seriously, too funny! "It's just that kid I meet during the entrance exam that I'm waiting for."

Ochako seemed to have beamed at that. "Oh! You mean that curly kid! We were hoping that we could walk home with him too!" I smiled as she said that. Even if Izuku's not in the Hero Department with me, he still manages to make friends. I was about to tell her that we could wait for him when I saw a familiar green hair in my vision. Seeing Izuku walking towards us, I waved him over.

"Well, here comes the man of the hour." Izuku gave his greetings as he walked over. "How were the classes? Better than you'd hope?"

"It was amazing! Did you know Ectoplasm teaches History!? I mean, I knew that Pro Heroes worked here as teachers, but this is unreal! Lunch Rush was also serving food at the cafeteria as well! Oh oh, and did you know that Present Mic teaches English!? Also-" Izuku went on and on as we just watched him go into his mumbling phase. He then listed the amount of Quirks and how they could be put to use in a practical way… And now it was getting to the point where his mumbling is getting louder and louder. Yeah, maybe it was time to stop before the train derails.

"Okay!" I patted his shoulder and it jolted him out of his phase. "I know that you love heroes and Quirks, but do give it a rest every now and then. You're going to give yourself a heart attack."

"I-I'm sorry Kid-san. I'm just so excited to see this many heroes here! I wish that I could have the time to write it all down."

"You wrote about thirteen books on Quirks and on the heroes, possibly more, and you want to write more!? Geez, with that big brain of yours, you could be taking over the world if you wanted!"

"I-I don't know about that...:"

I laughed at Izuku's antics and rubbed his head like a brother would do. Even if we had known each other for a week or so, I could feel that Izuku had definitely earned his place in the Mercenaries. "Oh yeah! Izuku, I wanted to introduce you to these two here!" I gestured my hand over to the two that were standing off to the side. "The one with the brown bowl haircut is Ochako and the one with the glasses is Iida! Guys, this is my friend Izuku Midoriya!"

Izuku finally took the chance to see the two people that I was talking about and gave a small noise of surprise. "I-I-I-I'm Izuku Midoriya!" He then jerked his upper body downward. "It's nice to meet you both!" I chuckled and patted his shoulder as to reassure him.

"It's nice to meet you as well Izuku! I hope that the both of us will continue work together in the future!" Iida almost yelled out. Izuku was taken back by the sudden change of volume but he took it nonetheless.

"I'm glad that you're in as well! Just like what Present Mic said!" Ochako said as she invaded Izuku's personal space. Izuku's face then went into a bright red as he backed up a bit and placed his arms around his head. I chuckled as Izuku stammered his words when he tried to talk to the girl that is literally right in front of his face. I waved to the two guards that I was talking to early and we were on our way. As we walked, we talked about the heroes and the Quirks along the way and I saw Izuku giving a small smile every now and then.

"Oh! I'm sorry Ochako-san! Iida-kun! I have to go somewhere!" Izuku abruptly said.

I looked confused by this until I looked at my watch. It was 5:30… Oh crap! "Oh shit! You're right! Let's go!" Izuku nodded and ran along with me. "Sorry guys! We have somewhere to be! Maybe next time!" I yelled back to them.

I didn't stick around long enough to hear what they were saying as I promptly ran after Izuku.

* * *

Ochako and Iida looked at the retreating form of Izuku and Kid as they ran off. Ochako was the first one to state her confusion. "Where did you think they were going?"

"I… have no idea. I would presume that they would run like that as if they're late for work." Iida pushed up his glasses as he said this.

Ochako looked at the way they went ran off when she suddenly gained an idea. "Iida-kun! Let's follow them!"

Iida turned to Ochako in shock. "What?! I don't believe that we should do that! What if it's something personal that they don't want us to know?!"

"But isn't a hero's duty to make sure that everyone's safe? And besides, you said that they could be going to work!"

Iida couldn't find an argument against that. He looked like he was internally fighting whether or not this was the best course of action, but Ochako beat him to the punch as she herself ran off. "Iida-kun! Let's go see where they work!"

"Ah! Ochako-san! Don't just run off like that!" And with that, the two followed down the path Kid and Izuku took before.

It took around an hour or so as they asked around if anyone had seen Kid or Izuku. When they arrived, they saw a building with a tacky sign hanging in front of the entrance and the entrance looked to be the only normal thing one could expect. Ochako and Iida looked at each other as if they were discussing the sign. Ochako opened the door and walked in seeing another door, an elevator in the middle and stairs leading up and down. Iida decided to open the next door and what laid ahead shocked both of them.

Inside of the building was a restaurant that was almost packed to the brim with so many customers eating and on the off-side was a bar where there were people drinking away. However, that wasn't what they were interested in. They were more interested in seeing the interior of the building and how it looked way fancy than the outside. Not only that, some of the customers even wore suits and dresses as they dined and drank. And most of all, even the employees looked sharp!

Ochako looked uncomfortable as she saw those people dressed so finely. Iida, on the other hand, looked like he'd seen this already.

"Hello! Welcome to Love & Dance!"

Both turned towards the voice to see a woman in her twenties, a sharp dress with a red tie and green hair. She smiled at them as she greeted them in. "Is there something you two need or are you waiting for a table?"

Iida was the first one to speak. "Yes! We're here to inquire about our classmates! Kid and Izuku! Have you seen them by chance?"

The woman clapped her hands together in glee. "Oh, you must be the friends that Kid told us about! The engine guy and the gravity girl!"

Ochako and Iida sweated at the nickname Kid had given them. Even if they only met that day, they could feel like it's going to stick with them for the semester.

"So," Ochako nervously said. "Are they…?"

Sano nodded. "Yup. They're here. However, I must ask you as to not disturb them at the moment. They're… busy."

"Busy? How-?"

Suddenly, a loud _BANG_ was heard from the kitchen. Ochako and Iida looked towards the source while Sano sighed. "Oh no, not again."

They didn't get the chance to ask what did she mean by that when a projectile went flying out of nowhere, crashed through the tables and chairs before stopping just a bit away from the customers. Even the customers were confused as to what just happened. Once the smoke cleared away, Kid laid there with his eyes swirling and his uniform all dirtied. Ochako and Iida were wondering why was Kid sent flying like that and as they did, their eyes led them down the path that Kid founded himself in and they soon found a hole that lead to the kitchen. On the other side of the hole, someone was climbing out of the kitchen and slowly walked to where Kid is.

"So… not only do you have the audacity of coming here unannounced," the person said in a menacing tone. "You also had the audacity of eating the food that I was preparing for the customers. So let me ask you this one question..." The person then looked at the downed Kid and gave him the most deadliest of deadly glare.

" _ **WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND GAVE YOU THE PERMISSION TO EAT THE FOOD FOR THE CUSTOMER?! IF YOU WANTED SOMETHING, YOU COULD'VE JUST FUCKING ASKED!"**_

Kid suddenly shot up from his position, startling Ochako and Iida who were still on the sidelines just watching the events occur.

"I WAS HUNGRY AND YOU WEREN'T AROUND! WHAT THE HELL WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?! I DON'T WANT TO STARVE TO DEATH!"

"THEN FUCKING WAIT AT THE FRONT DESK LIKE ANY OTHER GODDAMN PERSON WOULD DO!"

"BUT I WAS HUNGRY!"

The two bickered and at some point during their bickering, it lead to them fighting. A punch, a kick and so forth. Ochako and Iida were really confused, as if they weren't confused enough, and looked towards Sano who was cleaning her nails. She acted like this was a normal thing that happened at the restaurant. "If you're wondering if this is a thing, then yes, it's a thing."

"But, how? And why? Shouldn't you stop it?" Ochako asked.

Sano snorted. "Good luck trying to break those two up. I'm not getting myself entangled in that mess."

"If you would excuse me ma'am!" Iida then asked in a really loud voice. "How is it that Kid knows that man? Are they friends by chance?"

"You could say that." Sano looked at the two that were still fighting. A rather nostalgic expression then made its way as she stared at the two, "Kid and Boss had been friends for more than ten years. Kid would always come in, announcing that he was here and would raid the kitchen for some food. Boss then would kick him out and then feed him the biggest plate that he could make." Sano sighed at the memory that had made its way. "Sometimes Kid would not announce as a way to get back at Boss for something that he may or may not did before." She smiled at the two. "It does liven the place a bit doesn't it?"

Ochako and Iida don't know if they should accept that as an answer but judging by how the customers are still going on and not batting an eye towards the skirmish, they reluctantly let it go. Still, that does beg the question. "Where's Izuku though? I don't see him anywhere."

"Yes! One would come rushing in after hearing such a commotion!" Iida said afterwards.

Before Sano could say anything, the door opened letting out an electrical bell sound. When Ochako and Iida looked over their shoulders, they saw Izuku wearing a tuxedo with a green tie to it. He had a thunder symbol patched onto his left breast of the tux as to show his employment. "Hey Sano-san? Have you seen…" Izuku finally noticed the two as Ochako waved and Iida did a robotic move to say hello. "Eh!? I-Iida-kkun! Ochako-san! What are you doing here?!"

"They came to visit you." Sano answered for the two. "Wanted to know what you do for work."

Izuku gave out a small _ah_ as he heard that. Just then, Izuku realized something and his face had a horrific expression on him. "Oh my god, I left you both behind without saying anything. I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so-"

"Ah don't worry about it!" Iida interrupted Izuku before he could go into a panic. "We weren't offended by your actions! Although we were quite curious as to where you and Kid-san went!"

"So it's really nothing to worry about Izu-kun!" Ochako smiled at Izuku. For some reason, Ochako's cheerful energy seemed to be infectious enough to make Izuku smile a bit. Sano looked at the three as they talked. Ochako invading Izuku's personal face while Izuku's face turned a bright red as Ochako's face was literally right next to his. Iida was commenting on his uniform and how it looked clean and professional. Izuku smiled and laughed a little as he talked with his friends.

"I'm glad," Sano muttered to herself. "You found friends that care for you Izuku. Even if it was us first, you got some new friends that care about you all the same." Sano smiled at the three with such glee.

Kid and Rex had stopped fighting at one point to take a look at Izuku being among with new friends. Kid giggled as he was happy to see Izuku smile for what it seems to be an eternity. Rex felt the same way as he smirked while smoking. Even some of the employees were watching Izuku. One thing was on everyone's mind as they saw this.

Izuku was in good hands now.


	8. The Calm before the Storm

**I'm a horrible person that doesn't deserve to live after leaving this one for so long! Still, I digress at times.**

 **Thank you for waiting patiently and thank you for taking the time for reading this fic.**

* * *

The Love & Dance Restaurant has been around since the Third Generation of Quirks. At that time, Quirks were still an unknown thing to the people. Scientists were still trying to figure out what caused Quirks to appear and if there were conditions that needed to be met in order for one to obtain a Quirk. Even before Quirks were a thing, Mercenaries were still around although hiding in the shadows, waiting for someone to hire them. Many people would go to the Mercenaries to hire them either to bolster their forces or have them act like hired men to guard them. Other times they were hired to kill someone without getting their hands dirty. It was common knowledge in the black market that any shady people would hire them for various needs.

However, at one point, the government caught wind of the Mercenaries activities and started to dismantle their operations one by one. Few of them managed to get away while the rest were caught and prosecuted, never to see the light of days again. The remaining Mercenaries needed a place where they could hide and rebuild their numbers so that they'd have a better chance of defending themselves the next time the government comes knocking.

Jack Thunder, the current leader of the Mercenaries, created the Love & Dance restaurant as a way to hide the Mercenaries away from the prying eyes of society. Since then, the restaurant had gained quite a reputation, namely being one of the friendliest yet targeted place in Japan. The employees there were people that had been hired by Jack or Rex, or had been picked up from the streets, rejected from society.

Alongside Jack was another leader of the Mercenaries who was happily married to him. Rose Thunder, Quirk: Vampirism. Basically, she had all the characteristics of a vampire and could live up to about an eternity. She didn't go anywhere without an umbrella as being in the sun for too long could hurt. It doesn't kill her, just irritates her.

Rex Thunder, the son of Jack and Rose, was born Quirkless and is the manager and sub-boss of the Love & Dance Restaurant. While Jack was technically the owner and founder of the restaurant, the sole responsibility of the restaurant rested on Rex. The reason for this was because Jack didn't want him to become leader of the Mercenaries just yet. He figured that he needed to learn how to lead something first before he could lead something like this big.

The Mercenaries had done well in hiding themselves away to avoid any trouble from the government. While there were a few close calls regarding their location, they were swiftly lead away by any false leads that they put out. Clients came and went either pleased with their services or dissatisfied with how they were treated during their time with the Mercenaries.

Still, didn't matter. Money was money for the Mercenaries for whenever or wherever they went. But that didn't mean that they didn't have hearts.

* * *

 **In a random location in Musutafu 12:00 PM**

It was only a typical afternoon at the restaurant and the weather outside was just right for a walk in the park. The sun was shining beautifully, the wind was just right and everyone was walking about. Everything was peaceful…

 _BOOOOOOOM!_

Except for the part where an explosion could be heard somewhere in the city.

"Everyone! Run! It's a Villain!"

Everything was in disarray. Chaos. People were screaming left and right as they tried to run away from whatever it was that was causing the destruction. A child was seen crying for their mother as they were abruptly separated. They cried for their mother to help them, they were scared as they had no understanding of the situation. They walked through the panicked crowd as the people tried to run away. Next thing they knew, they were being roughly handled and soon found themselves in a chokehold position.

"Don't move."

* * *

"What's the situation?"

"Approximately around 12:00, a young girl was taken hostage by a Villain with a mutation Quirk that mutated him with rhino-like characteristics. Currently, he's hold up in that building demanding money and a safe way out."

"Typical villain tactics. Do we have any Pro Heroes on the scene or enroute?"

"Only one Hero is on the way here. The rest of the Heroes were either too busy or they were elsewhere."

"Hmm, let's just hope the situation doesn't get any worse."

The crowd looked at the scene as they tried to get a better look at the situation. Almost everyone in the crowd wondered which Hero would come to save the day and had their phones out recording. The mother that had managed to get away and was with the police as they waited for the hero to come.

A few hours ago, the Rhino Villain had robbed a store and was about to get away when a passing Hero spotted the runaway Villain. They tried to apprehend them, but the Villain proved to be tougher than they previously thought and they were swiftly defeated. The Villain then caused massive destruction to several buildings to divert the Hero's attention away from him and among the chaos that he'd ensued, he snatched up the girl and holed themselves up in an abandoned building.

As of now, police officers were already on the scene and the onlookers were being pushed back by the officers as to not let anyone else get harmed. Several officers were already stationed outside of the building with their shields up. In front of them was a detective wearing his uniform, talking to the Villain with a megaphone. "Okay! We're preparing the money! Just don't harm the child!"

"DON'T FUCKING LIE TO ME! YOU BASTARDS HAVEN'T MOVED AN INCH FROM WHERE YOU ARE! EITHER YOU GET ME THE MONEY OR THIS BRAT FUCKING GETS IT!"

Tensions were on the rise as the police tried to figure out a way to get the girl to safety without letting the Villain get a wind of their plan. So far, the Villain had thwarted the police's attempt at attacking from behind and those that were in the attack were only just able to get out before the Villain could take them hostage. The only problem, however, was that one of the officers left behind their radio and now the Villain had access to the entire police channel. The police were forced to communicate with each other face to face as to not leak out any information to the Villain.

"Hello boys and girls..."

A husky yet silvery voice rang out from the crowd behind and when everyone turned around, they could see a feminine person wearing a white bodysuit. Handcuffs were on each wrist and a utility belt was hanging at her waist. A red domino mask covered her green luminescent eyes and at her waist was a whip.

"Ohh! It's the R-Rated Hero, Midnight!" Someone in the crowd shouted out.

Everyone cheered for the Pro Hero that had arrived and she waved back. She made her way through the crowd as they were cleared the way for her. She made it over to where the first two were talking about the situation with some of the other officers. The two that were talking noticed Midnight and met with her halfway. "Midnight. It's good that you're here."

"It's no problem officer." Midnight shook his hand. "What's the situation right now?"

The second officer plucked his hat off to wipe away the sweat and wore his hat back. "As of now, there's a Villain holding a child hostage. We tried to apprehend him while the negotiation was taking place, but he managed to find out about it and drove them away. Not only that, he snagged a radio one of our people accidently left behind can hear what we're saying on the channel." They looked at the ground as they balled their fist in anger. "We have no way of knowing if the child is alright or if the Villain has already…"

Midnight looked at the second officer as she placed her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. You've done-"

 _BANG!_

* * *

 **Few minutes prior to the gunshot**

"God fucking damn it. These cops don't know when to quit."

The Rhino Villain looked outside through the slits of the boarded window. In his mind, he'd thought that it would be a simple robbery, get in and get out. However, a Hero was passing by on their patrol and he was forced to ditch the money to get away. The Hero that he'd fought went down easily, but he was in an area where there were more people. They started screaming and frantically tried to get away from the villain. With haste, he nabbed a kid off the streets and ran for it. Eventually, he found an abandoned building and held up in it since.

The child was crying for her mother and it infuriated him to the point where he smacked the child in the head, rendering her unconscious. Even if his Quirk allowed him to have the skin of a rhino, allowed him to smell and hear better than the normal person, it didn't mean that he was bulletproof. The SWAT team that were trying to sneak behind him tried to take him down, he drove them off with his horn and luckily for him, one of them dropped their radio. It must've been his lucky break as he used the radio to hear what the police were doing.

Now, it's only a matter of waiting for the perfect opportunity to escape.

"So, this is where you've been hiding."

The Rhino Villain immediately turned around to face the voice and saw a man wearing heavy armor that covered his chest, arms and legs bare. On his back was a SPAS-12 combat shotgun with the stock on the gun's back. His waist held a .357 revolver capable of stopping someone dead in their tracks. A bandana was wrapped around his mouth to hide his identity, although his white hair might be a dead giveaway. Still, he looked badass. "I gotta say, I did not expect our meeting to be like this."

The Rhino Villain seemed to know who he was as he sighed in relief. "Oh thank fucking God! Jack, man, you gotta help me! The police are right outside and I've got no way out!"

"I'm assuming that you can pay for my services?"

The Rhino Villain started to sweat. "I, uh, I can! I just need, uh, some time. That's it, yeah!" Jack started to chuckle and then devolved into laughter as if he'd just heard the funniest joke. "H-Hey! What's so funny?! I swear I'll pay you!"

Jack wiped away a stray tear before addressing the rhino villain. "Yeah, that's what the last guy said to us when he didn't had the money on hand. Guess where he ended up?" The Rhino Villain paled. "Yeah. And besides, there's a bounty on your head so…" He flipped his revolver and spun the gun on his finger before pointing it at the villain. "Don't think badly of us. We're just doing our jobs is all."

Before Jack could do anything about it, the Rhino Villain yelled out and charged at him with the intent of impaling him with his horn. Of course, the man saw this coming from a mile away and sigh. He then ducked under the arms of the Villain when he tried to use a haymaker on him, so the Villain bashed into a wall and slumped down with his face still on the wall. He turned around to see the revolver right in front of his face.

 _BANG!_

Without waiting for the villain to say anything, Jack pulled the trigger and ended the Villain with one shot to the head. After that, he shot him in the heart two times and watched as the Rhino Villain twitched as it tries to get up. Eventually, the body lay still, dead to the world. Jack took out a canteen and started to down the contents into his stomach. He then placed a finger on his ear. "Target's dead. You guys good with EVAC?"

"Should be here soon. You didn't do anything that would attract yourself to more trouble, right?"

"Pshh, what do you take me for?"

A loud noise rang out followed by several footsteps thundering towards his location. "THIS IS THE POLICE! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"

Jack did a double-take as he immediately ran for the nearby stairs. "Uh, better make that EVAC fast! Got some trouble from behind!"

An audible sigh came from the other side of the radio. "See? This is why your stats for 'Getting into Trouble' are so high Boss Jack!"

"Just shut up and get that EVAC ready!"

Multiple footsteps and voices were right behind Jack, causing him to quicken his pace. Soon enough, he found himself on top of the building's roof. The minute Jack bashed through the door, he barred the door with the things that were scattered around the roof in hopes to buy himself some time. "Oi! You ever gonna to finish over there or what?!"

"Not unless you want to end up dead on the way back!"

 _THUD!_

Jack turned around to see the door that was barred started to creek bit-by-bit with the people on the other side of the door. If one would squint their eyes a bit, they could see the door hinges started to break apart. "Any time now! I've got a mob of angry police over on the other side of the door here!" Nothing was said over the radio, but few seconds later, a bright light in the shape of a circle shone in front of Jack. "Thanks for the EVAC! Now-!'

 _BOOM!_

"Crap! Gotta go!"

Jack quickly stepped into the ring of light, leaving behind nothing as the police officers charged onto the roof. Just as Jack was being teleported somewhere, he gave a two-finger salute to the police and Midnight who was behind them and disappeared in front of their eyes. The chief ordered everyone to have a wide sweep of the area in case if he'd teleported somewhere to escape. Midnight looked at the place where Jack had been teleported and went back down to help out the search.

* * *

 **Back at the Love & Dance Restaurant**

The Love & Dance Restaurant was constructed as a way to hide the Mercenaries from the government's prying eyes and a way to make some money. The building itself contained about ten floors and three basement floors. The first floor was where the restaurant is along with the bar. The second and third floor was a recreational floor designed for anyone to relax and enjoy themselves. It held some arcade games, a snack area, and some holographic rooms for Quirk users to go wild. The fourth through seventh floor was where the employees resided. Those that had either lost their loved ones or just didn't have enough money to buy a house were given a place to stay until they could find a place or they could live there if they so chose to.

The eighth and tenth floor were converged making them the location for their gym. Various of gym equipment was scattered about the floors and positioned in neat rows to determine which gym equipment was which. Somehow, on the ninth floor, Jack was able to fit an entire boxing ring and the floor didn't collapse with the pressure of the ring. Even when two people were sparring against each other it didn't make the whole floor go down. It was pretty impressive.

The roof was where the garden is and where employees with Quirks could practice. The roof was equipped with EMP technology and Quirk use to prevent being seen by the public nor the authorities. For those that were Quirk users, Jack and Rose would train them in honing their skills with their Quirks so that they knew it inside out. Rex, with the newly added member Izuku, would help those with less flashy Quirks but were a lot more effective behind the scenes.

The first floor basement level was where the employees would get dressed in their uniform for work, but hidden away was the entrance to the Mercenaries HQ Command Center. It was where most of the Mercenaries were stationed to monitor the progress of any Mercenaries that were out in the field.

The second floor basement level was the R&D Department where some of the more technical would create any and all kinds of gadgets to help aid the Mercenaries in their fight.

The third and final floor of the basement level was the Intel Department. Their job was to input any information regarding Quirks into their database to help the Mercenaries be informed should they run into any Quirk users with similar Quirks. Once the Intel Department gathered what they deemed enough, they sent any relative data over to the R&D Department to replicate said Quirk. While it may have been true that the Mercenaries were strong in their own aspect, they were still outmatched by any Quirk users they met on the field.

Hence, the Intel Department. Speaking of which…

* * *

 **Portal Room, Third Floor Basement level of L & D**

The Portal Room was where the Intel Department was able to gather enough information about a warp Quirk they encountered a while back. Warp Quirks were extremely rare nowadays and they knew one person that could warp them. It was luck that they were able to encounter such a Quirk and yet, they wouldn't be able to encounter them again anytime soon as they were good at hiding. Still, they were able to somewhat replicate the Quirk by creating a portal device.

No, not _that_ kind of portal. And yes, that's in the works…

A-Anyways, the device had a pad on both the top and the bottom, which could fit a squad of about five people on it. There was a device next to it that allowed anybody to teleport to a location that they've been to.

The pad suddenly emitted a bright light and as it died down, Jack was on top of the pad. He inhaled a large amount of air and exhaled. "Damn, it's good to be back!"

"Now if you'd only stop getting yourself into trouble, that would be great."

Jack turned towards the person that said it and smirked at them. "Ah, come on now! When was the last time we ever got into trouble?"

The person that Jack was talking to was a woman in her thirties, wearing a lab coat with a name-tag that said 'K.M', black high heels, round thick black frames, a professional black dress and long brown hair that was tied into a ponytail. This was Kenmotsu Misato, head scientist of the Intel Department and close friend of Jack.

Misato inhaled a cigarette in her mouth and exhaled a cloud of smoke from the corner of her mouth. "You got into trouble last week with the authorities and we had to bail you out of there." She then tapped her foot in agitation, "Not only did you waste some of our resources, the authorities were _this_ close to finding out about us." Misato then crossed the distance between herself and Jack and pulled on Jack's shirt collar. "If any of them were to find out about our existence, then we'll need someone to take the fall, won't we?"

Needless to say, Jack sweated at the idea of being a scapegoat and held his hands up in a surrendering motion. "Alright alright! I get it! Just don't damage the suit!" Misato seemed satisfied by that and let go of Jack's suit, allowing him to fix up the wrinkle. "Geez woman, you'd think you'd hold back a bit."

"If it's you Jack-kun, then I have to remind you of your stupidity every other day. I mean, what about last week when you went too far with the interrogations?"

"That guy was pissing me off! With the way he was talking to me-!"

"He was goading you for a reaction! He wanted to get a reaction out of you so that he could activate his Quirk!"

"Well how was I supposed to know that's what his Quirk does?!"

"We literally just warned you about his Quirk! It's your damn fault for not listening!"

Both walked down the hall as they argued about a range of topics. None of which made any sense. The other scientists that watched the two walked down only looked at them as if it was an everyday occurrence. "They're at it again huh?" one of the scientists remarked to their friend.

"Yup, seems like it," they said while looking at the clipboard in their hand.

"How long do you think it'll last this time?"

"Depending on our boss and Boss Jack's mood and seeing how they're pissed off, I'd say about three hours."

"Damn, an hour longer than before. Could be a world record."

"And it will be," suddenly, a voice rang out behind the two scientists and as they slowly turned their heads, they could see Misato standing behind them with her fist out and her forehead looking like it was about to pop a vein. "IF YOU TWO DON'T GET BACK TO WORK!" She ended that sentence slamming down their foreheads.

The two scientists ended up with goose eggs on their head. After that, the two scientists swiftly saluted to Misato before running off to where they needed to go. Misato gave off a long suffering sigh as she fished out another cigarette and proceeded to smoke. "I swear, where do we even get these people?" Misato could hear Jack chuckling in the background and she turned around to face him. "Don't think you're off the hook here! I'm still pissed off at you for almost blowing our cover!"

Jack did the most sensible thing anyone had ever done… and ran away.

"GET BACK HERE!"

"NO WAY IN HELL!"

To anyone else that had only just started working here, there would be a curious look on their face. However, to everyone else that'd been working there for a few years, it was just another day at Love & Dance.

* * *

 **Restaurant Floor: Love & Dance**

It was a good day outside. There weren't that many customers in today, so most of the employees to that day to relax. The majority of the employees went into town as to spend their day walking around, either with their friends, girlfriends or any relatives that were in town. However, there was one employee that didn't get the chance to relax as he was called in last second.

Rex was maintaining the bar as per Jack's request. He said something along the lines, ' _Make sure that no alcohol is missing from these cabinets! I'm having a drinking fest!'_ before laughing loudly and heading off upstairs. Screams could be heard later on during the day.

Rose, on the other hand, was in the command center to see the development of the new weapons the R&D Department made the other day. She seemed to be gleeful in a way when she skipped along the floor to the door and disappearing around the corner. Rex never had questioned why Rose was like that, but he knew what would happen if he did. He still got shivers from that horrifying memory.

Kid had shown up at one point during his shift and sat down at the bar, demanding something to drink and to eat. Rex yelled at him and scolded him about how not to demand something and just wait like a normal person, along with how to have some manners. While Rex was in the kitchen cooking, Kid tried to entertain himself by looking at the variety of alcohol that filled the cabinet row and tried giving them a nickname. He got bored few seconds later and started calling out for food.

Rex later showed up with food fit for a king and handed it over to Kid, who proceeded to gulp everything down. Once that was done, they talked about how their day was going and so forth. Kid looked at his watch and bulged out his eyes upon landing on it. With swiftness, he slammed the correct amount for the food and ran out while still chewing on the last piece of food.

And just like that, there was a sense of calm that loomed over the restaurant. People did come to the restaurant every now and then, but overall, it was a calm day.

"Honey!"

Until that.

Rex choked on his saliva as he was caught off guard by the sudden announcement. Normally, it would be Kid that did the announcement and then proceeds to raid the kitchen or just sit at one of the empty tables and start yelling out. However, the voice that rang out sound like a woman's voice. Plus, it said 'honey'. There was only one person that had called him that in his past and as he faced to see the one that called him that, his face went very white.

A woman sat down on one of the stools right by the bar counter, wearing a light dark shirt with a design of white polka dots, a pair of blue jeans with a few holes showing her legs and black heels. She made her way to Rex and took a seat and placed her elbows on the counter as she rested her head on her hands. "I knew I'd find you here honey!"

Rex puffed out a smoke from his mouth as he addressed the woman. "Not now Nemuri-chan. I'm currently busy serving the customers."

Nemuri looked around the restaurant and gestured over at the almost empty restaurant. "Gee, it really is busy here."

"Yeah, yeah." You could feel the depression just laced in his tone as he said this. "Take a seat wherever you want." Nemuri did just that and sat at the counter, where Rex just sighed.

Rex used to date Nemuri back in high school when Nemuri first confessed to him at the back of the high school. Rex was the popular boys that every girl wanted to date and boys would hate him, but they couldn't bring themselves to hate him in a way that would cause drastic measures. It was common for Rex to have some girl wanting to date him and having him reject them. The reason behind this was because he was busy trying to learn about leading the Mercenaries. One day, Rose saw how Rex was getting dark circles on his eyes so Rose told (bashed) him that he needed to find something else to do, else she'd do _that_ to him.

Just the mere thought of Rose doing _that_ made him shudder in fear. Since then, Rex and Nemuri had dated over the past year. It was fun, but for some reason, Rex couldn't figure out Nemuri. Sometimes, Nemuri would often bend down to pick up something she dropped, revealing some eye candy for Rex. Rex, on the other hand, would either be looking elsewhere or he wasn't paying attention. And each time Nemuri failed to get Rex's attention, she would get agitated. At one point, she invited Rex to her house when her parents weren't home and they spent some private time together. It then went weird when Nemuri started to show Rex her real side. It spooked Rex to the point where he tried to run, but Nemuri held him down and had her way with him until the sun went down.

Rex was mentally scarred by that day.

After that, Rex stayed far away from Nemuri for a time and Nemuri took that as a sign that they should break up for some reason. Rex still found Nemuri beautiful, but he didn't want anything to do with her other side and Nemuri wanted nothing more than to be together with Rex again. Even now, Rex was doing his damndest to avoid her while respecting her life choices and Nemuri was still trying to hook Rex back up with her. Rex grabbed a notepad from his left breast pocket and a pen from the top of his right ear. "So, what will you have?" Rex says as he brought out his notepad.

"You, of course!" Nemuri giggled.

"Anything _from_ the menu, I mean."

"Well…" She looked through the menu that was provided by Rex and ordered some food. By the time she finish ordering, Rex took the menu, somehow teleported away to the kitchen and came back with some food all within the matter of minutes. Nemuri, to say the least, was shocked by this. "Whoa. You were quick! Are you sure you don't have a Quirk?"

Rex placed the food on the counter and whipped out a cigarette from his pocket. "I can assure you Nemuri-chan, I don't have one." He blew a smoke from his lips and leaned on the counter. "Even if I did have one, I wouldn't use it at all. I mean, that training that I did with my old man would all go to waste."

"Oh yeah. Say, how's Jack-san doing these days? I hope he's not rushing into danger like he normally would do."

"Oh no, it's the opposite of that. He's _running_ into danger while yelling out his battle cry. I'm not sure why, but he does this sometimes whenever a battle is going the way he wants it to."

"Huh… Speaking of which, I've heard that you were hired by UA. I thought you didn't like Quirk users."

Rex inhaled the stick and blew out a smoke. "I think you misunderstood. I don't mind Quirk users. I just don't like users that are stuck-up, arrogant bastards that like to flaunt their Quirks every so often." Nemuri just nodded and ate her food.

Nemuri wasn't a stranger to Rex's hatred of Quirks or to Quirk users in general. Back when they were dating, they passed by some alley where there were about two or three people surrounding someone. The group had Quirks that were flashy and looked like they had potential, but instead, they were being used to bully that person. Before anyone could react, Rex charged in and beat the crap out of the group. The group used their Quirks on Rex, making him injured and slowing him down. That didn't deter Rex from wanting to beat up the group even more and doubled his efforts.

Eventually, they ran away and Rex was left with many injuries to tend to while Nemuri went to see the victim. The flashback that Nemuri had caused her to frown. "Are you sure you'll be alright? I don't want you to do something drastic to the kids."

Rex just smoked his cigarette for a few moments before giving her a small smile. "Don't worry Nemuri-chan. I'll be fine. If anything, I'm glad that you're teaching there as well. At least I'm going not in alone."

"Oh, Rex-kun…"

"Plus, my old man and mom are there as well. I could use all the help I need to get through this."

Nemuri giggled. If there was one thing about Rex, it's that he can always count on his family. Speaking of which… "Hey Rex-kun? Do you know a boy by the name of Izuku Midoriya? He's been the talk of the teachers lately."

Rex's eyebrow raised in interest. "Oh? What has he done lately?"

"Well…"

* * *

 **A few weeks earlier**

All of class 1-C were outside on the PE grounds wearing their gym uniforms. In front of the group of class 1-C students was another group standing neatly next to each other in five rows. All of them wore black tank-tops and dark green military cargo pants. In front of them was Jack wearing the same uniform like everyone else. He drank from his canteen as he scanned the students with a keen eye. "Alright students! Today, you're going to be training with me and my boys here! Now, the reason why I brought you all out here is because I want you kids to learn how to fight back without using your Quirks!"

Nemuri was off to the side with her hero uniform on and watched as the students gave out a confused noise.

"Why should we do this training? Isn't our Quirks enough?" one student asked from the crowd.

"The whole entire purpose of this training is so that we could prepare ourselves if a Villain has a Quirk that can erase someone's Quirk, like Eraserhead's Quirk. Not only that, we can develop our body so that we could rely on our own training rather than our Quirks."

Nemuri looked at the single student, that is, of course, Izuku Midoriya, who had suddenly blurted out the pros for working out without using their Quirks. Izuku placed his hand over his mouth in shock as he realized what he just did. "I-I'm mean, realistically-!"

Jack laughed out loud at Izuku's antics and drank from his canteen. "What the kid said is right! You never know what will happen on the streets. For example," Jack snapped his fingers and the group behind him split off to both sides. Two people came out of the groups and stood on opposite sides of one another. "Now, you see that guy over there?" He pointed over to a person that had a lion-head. "That one there has a Quirk. And the other?" The person on the left was a normal human. "So, let me ask you this? Which one of these people would win in a fight?"

Most of the students said that the Quirk user would win in a fight while a very few, Izuku included, said that the non-Quirk user would win. Jack seemed to have noted the students that said the Quirk user would win and looked over his shoulder to the two. He nodded to them and they both took their fighting stance. Jack looked back at the students, who were eager to see if they were right.

"How about we make a little wager? If the Quirk user wins the fight, then you guys won't do the exercise. Ah!" Jack held up a finger as to stop the students from doing their impromptu cheer. "I'm not done yet. If the non-Quirk user wins, well…" Jack cracked his knuckles and looked at the students with the malicious glare. Add that smile and you were looking at a natural born killer.

" **Let's just say** **you'll** **wish you weren't born."**

The students cowered in fear under the glare of Jack and unbeknownst to everyone, Izuku just sighed. "Well, at least I'll get more training."

* * *

 **Back to the present**

"And when the two fought against each other, the non-Quirk user won and Jack and I laughed at the kids' faces when they were shocked to see the non-Quirk user win. After that, Jack had everyone do the exercise, only he made twice as hard from what I was about to do. However, as they did the exercise, I couldn't help but notice that Izuku from my class handled it pretty well."

Rex chuckled to himself as he heard Nemuri's story. "That kid is something, that's for sure." Rex inhaled his cigarette until there was nothing left and tossed it into an ashtray. "Yeah, I know him. So does everyone else here."

"Oh? Does he work here?"

"Has been for the past ten months. He was on the verge of tears when I first met him."

"Oh my, what happened?"

Rex fished out another cigarette from his pocket and lit it up. "Let's just say that he has a lot of baggage on his shoulders and leave it at that."

Nemuri looked downcast at Rex's statement and proceeded to eat her food. Rex inhaled another bit of his cigarette. For the past ten months, Rex had gotten to know a bit about Izuku and started to see him as one of them. Not as a Mercenary, but as a Hero. Though sometimes, Izuku really did gave them a run for their money. Upon the first few days of working at the restaurant, Izuku ran into a Villain on the way. The Villain was holding a family of three, the dad was on the ground unconscious and the two children were hugging each other in fear. The Villain had a Quirk that allowed him to shapeshift his body into various of objects.

Izuku, being the hero paragon that he was, stepped in a tried to stop the Villain. However, the Villain was one step ahead as he managed to grab him by the neck and tried to choke him with a bag he created. Izuku struggled with the Villain for quite sometime and it was only when he remembered that he had a gadget specifically made from the R&D Department. He pulled it out from his pocket and used it on the Villain. It caused quite a mess for the Mercenaries to clean up when they arrived on the scene.

When all was said and done, Izuku was given a ride to the nearest hospital along with the family of three. Izuku visited the family on his own time to see if they were doing okay. He ended up getting sweets out of it from time to time, so it was alright.

"Oh, that reminds me." Rex snapped his fingers. "From what I've heard, the Heroic Department is having their first battle trial. Who's supervising it?"

Nemuri placed a finger on her chin and moved the finished plate towards, which Rex took. "I think All Might is going to supervise it. Not sure who's supervising with him though…" Laughter could be heard from the back and both occupants that were within hearing distance sweated. "Although I have a funny feeling that it will not be good."

Rex sighed and decided to make two beers for himself and Nemuri. He placed one right next to Nemuri and held his own in his hand. "To another day enduring the hell that awaits us."

Nemuri did the same with a sad smile plastered on her face. "Another day indeed."

 _KLINK_

* * *

 **UA Academy: Three days later**

Another day has passed since I enrolled here at UA. Nothing exciting happened and I get the feeling that Aizawa has it out for me. For some reason, Aizawa's always putting up restrictions on me and telling me to tone down my Quirk. Still, it's annoying, but I can understand his reasoning. Don't need any more destruction on my tab already.

Besides all that, I can see my fellow classmates all getting excited for one reason only: All Might is going to be teaching our class today. Everyone's excited to see All Might in the flesh and are chatting among themselves. All Might is a good hero, to be honest, and that he's done a lot of good work for the community. Though, I get the feeling that that's not the only reason why All Might's here.

" _Never trust anything at face value. Always question everything."_

Those words ring in my head as I remember my dad telling me it one day. Some damn good advice he'd given me before he vanished into thin air. Not sure where he went, but he'll show up eventually. My thoughts are interrupted when the door to the classroom opened and _oh my god it's him._

" **I AM HERE! WALKING THROUGH THE DOOR LIKE A NORMAL PERSON!"** All freakin Might himself showed up with his hands on the door frame. Seriously, the more he's holding onto the door frame, the more it looks like he's about to break it about it. What I noticed is that he's wearing his silver age costume, which consists of red armor with a white circle at the center and lines going towards the shoulders that had clamps to his cape. His yellow gauntlets and boots shimmer when the sunlight hits them.

"Whooooaa! That's his silver age costume! From where he started to debut!" The spiky red-haired dude, I think his name is Kirishima, exclaims.

 _POW!_

"Then go through the door like a normal person, goddammit!"

All Might suddenly falls forward from where he was before and would faceplant the ground if he didn't keep his footing. Everyone in the room jolts at that loud noise and gets scared for All Might, after he's kicked in. Another person then comes through the door, wearing a formal suit with the tie loosely around his neck. He pulls out a canteen and drank its content down. He scans the surrounding as he eyes us students one by one. He sees me and the two just stare at each other.

And stare.

And stare.

And-

"Um, hello?"

" **You ruined it!** "

Me and Jack yell at All Might, who jolts back at our yelling. He looks flustered and confused by us shouting at him. After that, me and Jack turn towards each other and try to get back into staring at each other. It takes a few seconds before it gets a bit awkward and we have to stop.

Jack sighs deeply as he drank again. "Right. Sorry about that. Just thought I liven things up." He clears his throat. "So, today's the day that you'll be doing your battle training with All Might. I'm Jack Thunder, teaching assistant to All Might. I'll be supervising your training along with him to make sure that he doesn't screw things up."

All Might bolsterly laughed out loud as he patted his back. " **Yes, it is as Jack-san says! In addition to me teaching you, he'll be my backup eyes to make sure that I don't miss anything! So be good to him!** " Everyone seemed to have accepted that and went back to being excited about today. All Might explains that we'll be doing a battle trial today, which is kinda of the premises of the lesson today and he's just repeating back what Jack said earlier. That doesn't stop the excitement in me or anyone else however.

" **Once you have your costumes on, meet me by the battleground. From this day forward, you're all** **Heroes** **!** " And with that, he freaking leaves dust in his wake as he ran through the hall of the school. Jack stays behind so that he can guide us to the locker rooms while we get our costumes. I pick mine up and follow the group out to the fake city. The academy is still huge, no matter how many times I've walked through the halls. I see Izuku walk by us and he sees us. We both wave at each other and-

 _YOINK_

Ah, there we go.

"Hey Izuku! Come on, let's go!" Jack just drags Izuku with him as they walk towards our destination. To anyone that had seen that, they would be extremely confused why Jack did that. I am too, for I have no idea what the hell he's doing. Knowing him, there's gotta be a good reason for this. Or there could be no reason at all and Jack's bored, but judging how Bakugou's fuming, I have good and bad feelings about this. I can see Izuku squirming a bit under Jack's grip as if he's trying to get out with his neck intact. Still, I wonder why Jack grabbed Izuku like that...

Eh, we'll find out when we get there.

* * *

 **Grounds B**

Thanks to the funding that was given by the government, UA was able to built a replicate city just outside and about a twenty minute drive from the academy, so that the students at UA would be able to hone their Quirks to help the people around the world. Currently, there were Mercenaries patrolling the grounds in case any villains had the idea to sneak through the grounds to get to UA. Some of them were talking amongst themselves as they patrolled the grounds.

"Say, you heard about the principal?"

"Yeah, I'd figure he be some old dude running this whole academy. Never thought our client would be a rat bear thing."

"I don't even know what the hell that thing is."

"Quirks, man. They're a thing now."

They continued to talk about other things when another guard came up to them. "Hey, you three! Get your asses moving! Boss Jack is coming with the kids!"

With that, the three grabbed their gear in a hurry and made their way out of the grounds. Once all of the Mercenaries were out, safe for some of them, Jack and the rest of the students came out of a tunnel. The students wore various costumes varying from being practical to fancy. They looked at the fancy costumes with disdain and the practical ones with a interest.

The Mercenaries had always favored the practical costumes as they were more useful to help out on the field. Fancy ones would just get you killed. As the last of the students came out, their eyes widen as they saw something that would was both fancy and practical.

Kid came strolling out the tunnel wearing a cowboy hat with various pins on it, two small metal bracelets that had outlets on them, a small sword handle on his left waist side, a revolver strapped to his right side of the waist (blank mind you), brown cowboy boots without the small star, a brown cowboy jacket with a thunder symbol embedded on his left breast and a striped undershirt. Another thing to note was that he wore an electrical mask where the face part of the mask was just a black board with silver for its frame. Two electrical eyes and mouth were shown on the mask.

One of the guards whistled at Kid's costume as he started at it. "Now that's something you don't see everyday!"

"A costume that's practical _and_ fancy? Heh, he does know how to make a costume look badass!"

And with that, the trio followed behind the class, not knowing that today will be different.

* * *

"It must be fate to have us paired for this exercise!"

"Either that or I'm starting to wonder about this team-up."

All Might explained to the class that the battle trial would be taking place inside a building. When he was asked a question, he explained that while some battles did happen out in the open, there were some hiding in the shadows waiting to strike. After that, he did a shuffle of who got paired with who and by some sort of luck, Kid was paired up with Ochako. The other team that they were facing against was Iida and Bakugou.

Oh, how fun this would be.

"So, what's our game plan?" Ochako asked Kid.

Kid cupped his chin as he thought about their plan. After two seconds, he turned to Ochako. "Simple. We go in and we grab the weapon. Plain and simple."

Ochako starred.

Kid stared back.

And now it just became awkward.

"Um," Ochako started. "Really?"

"Well, yeah. We just storm the building when they least expected it, grab the weapon and call it a day." Kid proudly declared his plan to Ochako, who in turn just looked at him like he'd done something bad. "What? It's a good plan, no?"

At that, Ochako felt something rage inside of her but chose to push it down. "U-Uh, I'm not if that's a good plan Kid-kun."

"Yeah, you're right. They would know that immediately as soon as we charge right in… Right, I got nothing. I guess we'll just wing it."

Ochako seemed to have accepted that, even if she does show a bit of skepticism at that. Still, they went over the plan that All Might given them prior to this exercise. "So, where do you think Bakugou-kun and Iida-kun would be hiding the bomb?"

Kid pondered over the map for a bit before pointing at a floor on the map. "My guess would be that they placed it somewhere between the third and fifth floor. Looking at how Iida is, it's most likely that Iida would probably lead us away from the bomb as to divert our attention away from it. Bakugou, on the other hand, would most likely come after me."

"Huh? Why would Bakugou come after you?"

"I might've pissed him off before in the past."

"Ehhhhh?! Why did you do that?!"

Kid looked away and huffed in anger. "Because he made someone that was close to me cry." While that answer did confuse Ochako, she could see his fist visibly shake in anger. She wisely decided not to ask and continued on talking about where the bomb might be. However, Kid wasn't into the plan as they talked. His mind wandered back to when Bakugou had just walked into the restaurant…

 **000**

 _About two weeks ago, Bakugou had somehow found the restaurant and waited until it was closing time. Once he confirmed that it was clear and he saw that familiar speck of green hair, he dashed towards him, grabbed him by the collar and into an alleyway. He slammed his fist right next to him and snarled at him. He told Izuku that a_ 'Quirkless freak like him had no place in UA,' _demanded that he drop out of UA. Izuku stood his ground and told him to shove off. He earned the place to stay at UA and he would not waste this chance of a lifetime._

 _That pissed off Bakugou to an extreme length as he reared his right arm. His hand sparked as his Quirk activated. It would've hit Izuku if Kid had not_ _intervened_ _. Kid then slammed Bakugou on the opposite side of the wall, letting Izuku taking deep breaths and_ _slide_ _down on the wall_ _he was_ _against. "So, let me ask you something…_ _what_ _the hell_ _do_ _you think you're doing to my friend?"_

 _Bakugou scoffed. "Friend? That_ freak _is a Quirkless Deku! He can't do anything and yet he's at UA! I was supposed to be the only one to have been enrolled there from my shitty school! UA has no place for the likes of a Quirkless fucking Deku!"_

 _Kid put in more pressure on Bakugou. "Now you listen here and you listen good. Izuku has_ earned _that right to be at UA. Everyone deserves the chance of becoming a hero. Not you or anyone else can say otherwise. And if I see you trying to hurt Izuku again…" Kid's_ _eyes glowed_ _a bright yellow. "I won't be so inclined as to hold back, got it?"_

" _You fucking-! Why are you defending a weak Quirkless-!?"_

POW " _Gah!"_

 _Bakugou looked at Kid with a hateful glare and Kid gave his in return. After that staring contest and Kid letting Bakugou go, Bakugou huffed in anger and slunked his way out of the alleyway. Kid and Izuku didn't say anything to each other, the former knowing that Izuku_ _needed_ _some time to recover and the latter taking the time to think about what happened._

" _U-Um," Izuku started. "I-I was just talking to Kacchan, that's all."_

" _While he had you pinned against the wall."_

" _...! I…"_

 _Kid crouched down to Izuku's level and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Izuku, why do you still see that guy as your friend? He bullied you. For all of your childhood. How could you still see him as your friend?"_

 _Izuku looked away from Kid's gaze on him. "He… He just needs some time, that's all. He's not a bad person to begin with."_

" _Izuku-"_

" _Please," Izuku pleaded with Kid. "Just… not now, alright?" Kid wanted to push on, to help Izuku out with this problem, but with the way that Izuku_ _was_ _looking at him think otherwise._ _He_ _sighed and gave him a small smile. Izuku was grateful for that and stood back up._ _He_ _said his goodbyes to Kid, not knowing that Kid was shaking with anger._

 _From that day forward, he'd sworn to help Izuku to the best of his abilities._

 **000**

 **Underground watching room**

Once the teams were announced and they were placed in their starting locations, everyone was talking amongst themselves about various of topics, one of them being the match-up.

"Man, how do you think Kid would go? His quirk is flashy and powerful! I wouldn't want to be at the end of his attacks!" Kirishima exclaimed.

"Yeah! I mean, his Quirk is kinda similar to mine in a way, but I see what you mean there!" Kaminari replied.

The two people that were talking to each other were Kirishima and Kaminari, both students of class 1-A. Kirishima had a Hardening Quirk that allowed him to harden any parts of his body and use it offensively and defensively. Kaminari had a Electricity Quirk that allowed him to make electricity from his body. Kid had meet the two during the entrance exam and when the two met, they sparked a bond like no other. Both Quirks would be considered to be flashy in their own ways, but with a bit more training, those Quirks could kill.

That is, in a Mercenary sense.

All Might watched the various monitors that showed the floors of the building and one of the monitors showed Iida and Bakugou with the bomb. Iida was the only one talking as he tried to come up with a plan to stop the hero team. Bakugou was over off to the side, thinking of something. Jack watched that particular screen with a wary gaze. He knew about Izuku's past, albeit only little of it. It was, however, enough to make Jack want to hunt down Bakugou and make him feel a taste of despair. He didn't do it though as he felt that Izuku wouldn't take it so well, so for the sake of Izuku, he refrained from doing that.

Speaking of Izuku, he had yet to explain why he suddenly dragged him along. Jack took a glance to his left to see Izuku still wearing his school uniform and is looking around in a panic, like he shouldn't be here. "Come on kid. Isn't this what you wanted?"

"I-I-I did, but I don't think I should be here. I should be back at class."

"What? And miss the opportunity of learning about their Quirks? Didn't you say that you wanted to become a hero?"

"Y-Yeah…" Izuku looked at the students of 1-A. He felt really out of place as the students had all sorts of costumes that went well with their Quirks. He rubbed his left arm in a nervous way as he watched on. Jack could only sigh and place his hand on his shoulder in a reassuring way. While Izuku didn't show it, he was grateful for it.

" **Alright! Begin the trial of battle!"**

With that announcement by All Might, everyone plastered their eyes on the screen. On the screen, Kid and Ochako strolled right through the entrance. Kid looked nonchalant about the whole thing while Ochako was on guard. While Izuku did know about Kid's Quirk in the past, this confused him about his whole behavior. Shouldn't he be more concerned about this? Why wasn't he on guard like Ochako-san is? Does he-?

"If you're done muttering out loud about Kid's behavior," Jack said, causing Izuku to jolt out of his thoughts. "It's because Kid _is_ being conscious around his surroundings."

"Huh? ...wait, do you mean that his Quirk is like a sensor of sorts?"

"Yeah. His Quirk, as you already know, is an emitter type and he can use energy-like attacks. In addition, his Quirk allows him to feel the energy of those around him."

"So if anyone were to do a surprise attack on him, he would instantly be notified by the change of energy. Not to mention that energy is all around us and if Kid could utilize the energy around him, he could essentially become powerful. But there has to be a downside to it. Maybe he could lose his mobility in one of his limbs or he could be paralyzed for a time. Is there a limit to how much energy he could take? Or there could be…"

As Izuku mumbled away under his breath, Jack chuckled at the sight. While it was a bit weird, it was something that he'd grown accustomed to over the months. Maybe the experience of having several employees and Mercenaries having different personalities had soften him. Even so, he wouldn't trade them all for the world. Still, maybe-

 _BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM!_

* * *

 **And this is where I'm afraid that I must end the chapter. However, as an apology for making you guys wait for about a month or so, I'll leave you guys with this preview I've got cooked up! Look forward to the next chapter!**

* * *

" _Why would you befriend a Quirkless freak like him!? He's weak, powerless, stupid DEKU! He couldn't do shit and he couldn't do shit when faced against a_ _Villain_ _!"_

" _Sure, and I bet you were doing_ sooo _well against that slime_ _Villain_ _! You couldn't do shit against him! You were basically trapped!"_

" _You shut the fuck up! I never needed his fucking help! I never needed anyone's help! Anyone that fucking get in my way should fucking die! I"ll be the number one_ _Hero_ _and I'll show everyone that I was meant to be the number one_ _Hero_ _!"_

" _...You say that, but with the way you're acting, you'll never be the number one_ _Hero_ _, much less a_ _Hero at all_ _."_

" _What?!"_

" _The way you're acting almost resembles a_ _Villain_ _. A true_ _Villain_ _. A_ _Villain_ _that would stop at nothing to destroy everything and everyone. A_ _Villain_ _that thrives_ _on_ _seeing despair and agony in the public. Both physically… and psychologically."_

" _Shut the fuck up! Deku's a fucking pebble! A pebble that doesn't deserve to be here!"_

" _Then I'll show you that he deserves the right to be here, like everyone on this planet!"_

" _ **I'm going to kick your ass!"**_


End file.
